134 Scientific Proceedings, Roijal Dublin Society. 



10. Ai'cliseopteris occurs in the Upper Devonian and Culm rooks, while 

 the Pteridosperms are known in well-developed forms from the Culm or 

 Lower Carboniferous. The ferns are represented in the Ciirboniferoiis by 

 the fossil group of the Botrj^opterideae, from whicli most of the different 

 modern groups of ferns can be derived, on paper at least. A generation ago 

 scarcely anyone was found to suggest tliat Sphenopteris, Neuropteris, Pecop- 

 teris, and other types were anytliing but ferns. My own inclination is to 

 regard Arcliteopteris as an ancestral form of the Opiiioglossacese, without 

 excluding from view the possibility that further investigation of tlie beds 

 containing it may show it to be a Pteridosperm, or to have within it the 

 makings of a Pteridosperm. The view that the liighly organized seed- 

 bearing Pteridosperms made their appearance in time before tlie spore-bearing 

 ferns, surely needs very strong and conclusive evidence before it can meet 

 with general acceptance. 



Bibliography. 



1. FoiiBEs, E. : On the Fossils of the Yellow Sandstone of the South of 



Ireland. Brit. Assoc. Eep., London, 1853 (Belfast Meeting, 1852), 

 p. 43. 



2. Baily, W. H. : On the Fructification of Cyclopterk hibernica (Forbes) 



from the Upper Devonian or Lower Carboniferous Strata at Kiltorcan 

 Hill, Co. Kilkenny. Brit. Assoc. Eep., Loudon, 1859 (Leeds Meeting 

 1858), p. 75. 



3. Explanation to accompany Sheets 147 and 157 of the Maps of the 



Geol. Surv. Ireland, 1861, pp. 13-16. 



4. Figures of Characteristic British Fossils, London, 1875, PL xxviii. 



5. Griffith, E.,aud Bhongniart, A. : Jouni. Geol. Soc, Dublin, vol. vii., 



1857, p. 287. 



6. Journ. Eoy. Dublin Soc, vol. i., 1858, p. 313. 



7. GoppKRT, H. E. : Ueber die Fossile Flora d. Silur,, Devon, u. unteren 



Kohlen-Formation oder d. sogen. Uebergaugsgebirges. Acad. Oses- 

 Leop. Nova Acta, Bd. xxvii., 1860, pp. 426-606. 



8. Stur, D. : Die Culm-Flora d. Mahrisch-Schlesischen Daehschiefers. — 



Abhaudl. d. k. k. geol. Eeichsanst., Bd. viii., Wien, 1875, s. 57 et seq. 

 Taf. xii., fig. 1, Taf. xvi., fig. 1. 



