aa 
3 the conetaine reached by 
1897 } MYELOPTERIS TOPEKENSIS 23 
there is a suggestion of similarity to our plant in the general 
character of the fundamental tissue, and the presence of numer- 
ous mucilage passages. These latter, however, are small and 
apparently altogether separated from the vascular bundles. 
Subsequent observers have not been unmindful of certain 
structural aspects in these plants, which have seemed to suggest 
their possible relationship to the palms, and more particularly to 
that type of structure represented in the genus Dracaena, but much 
doubt has always been entertained as to the possibility of mono- 
cotyledons occurring so far back as the Carboniferous. These 
doubts were first prominently expressed by Brongniart as the 
result of comparing with the plants figured by Cotta and Corda, 
new material obtained from Autun, France.” He says “‘il y ait 
des différences fort essentielles et qué rendent trés difficile 
d’établir des rapports entre ces fossiles et les végétaux vivants.”’ 
He therefore preferred to regard Cotta’s Medullosa elegans as 
the representative of a new genus, for which he proposed the 
name Myeloxylon, which thus seemed to indicate the leading 
structural features indicated by the former name, the signifi- 
cance of which was thereby perpetuated. 
Fifteen years later, Goeppert, in reviewing Cotta’s species, 
regarded Medullosa elegans as possessing characters which were | 
variously represented in the gymnosperms, in palms, and in the 
ferns. As a generalized type, he applied to it the name of 
Stenzelia. 
In 1873, Williamson first drew attention to the belief that 
the relations of these fossils had not been correctly interpreted, 
and — ~ view that or ake were sees ferns sepsis to the 
re 1874, ‘Baca reviewed the edie (heed from. the . 
Carboniferous beds at Autun, as a —— of which he bine sche | 
RETIN: 
oS —_ to be — ae ne ton of . 
| rede Ves Foss. 60. 1849. (om Pee 
