185.k] hooker RHYTIDOSPORUM OVULUM. !')6i) 



I should have had httle hesitation in referring it to Phsenoganious 

 plants, and there is much that recalls the structure of the seed of 

 MagnoliacecE. In Magnolia itself the seed consists of a crustaceous 

 testa (with a fleshy outer coat), perforated at the niicropyle, and tra- 

 versed along one side hy vascular cords ; it further contains a delicate 

 membranous sac, almost identical, in microscopical structure, in 

 situation, and in mode of attachment to the testa, with that of 

 Cai'polithes ovidum ; but there is not, upon the membrane of the 

 Maynolia seed, the defined apical pore that there is in this fossil, 

 nor does it contain any contents analogous to what I have here 

 described as spores. 



In the present state of our knowledge, if the striated hodies in 

 the sac are to be regarded as spores, then C. ovulum must be referred 

 to Cryptogamia, and it will rank nearer Ferns than any other class ; 

 for, though the membranous inner sac more resembles that of Mosses 

 in its structure than any known Fern, the vascular bundle is opposed 

 to that alliance, as is the insertion of the sac, and the form and 

 structure of the spores. 



There is a remarkable analogy between the structure of this 

 Counter Hill fossil and the genus Folliculites, which I shall shortly 

 describe*, and which is abundant in the Tertiary lignites of the 

 Bovey Tracey Coal-field in Devonshire, — the position and structure 

 of the sac being identical ; but the sporangium or outer coat of Fol- 

 liculites dehisces longitudinally, the sac does not open by a terminal 

 pore, and I have found no traces of sporules in the numerous speci- 

 mens of that genus which I have examined. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XVI. 

 (All the figures except fig. 1 are more or less highly magnified.) 



Fig. 1. CarpoUthes ovulum; natural size. 



Fig. 2. The same magnified : a. the thickened edge traversed by the vascular 



cord ; b. the terminal mamilla and pore. 

 Fig. 3. The same, looking towards its apex, and fig. 4. towards its base. 

 Fig. 5. Celuilar tissue of the surface. 

 Fig. 6. Mamilla and terminal pore. 

 Fig. 7. Transverse section of its tissue. 

 Fig. 8. Vertical section of thickened edge and vascular cord. 

 F'ig. 9. Portion of cord highly magnified. 

 Fig. 10. Cellular tissue of the outer surface of the sporangium near the cord, 



showing the canals in the cell-walls. 

 Fig. 11. The same from towards the apex of the sporangium. 

 Fig. 12. Cells of inner wall of sporangium. 

 Fig. 13. Vertical section of sporangium showing the inner sac. 

 Fig. 14. Upper portion of sac. 

 Fig. 15. Tissue of lower part of sac. 

 Fig. 16. Tissue of apex of sac. 

 Fig. 17. More highly magnified view of membrane of the sac, showing it to 



be formed of two. (With a spore attached.) 

 Fig. 18. Spores. 

 Fig. 19. Sporules. 



* See below, p. 566. 



