XXXV] SAMAROPSIS 337 



wings. It is advisable to restrict the designation Samaropsis to 

 Palaeozoic seeds. Nucules deprived of the broad border would 

 be referred to Cordaicarpus as usually employed for impressions. 

 The generic name Samaropsis serves a useful purpose as a distinc- 

 tive term for platyspermic seeds preserved as casts or impressions 

 characterised by the possession of a wide border or wing broader 

 than in typical examples of Cordaicarpus. 

 The specimen represented in fig. 499 affords 

 a good illustration of the difference between 

 Samaropsis and Cordaicarpus. In this 

 specimen the border clearly consists of two 

 portions, an inner narrower border (black in 

 the drawing) and an outer more dehcate 

 portion ; the former is the impression of the 

 sclerotesta and the outer represents the fleshy j,^^ ^gg ~~^^ ^ ^ 

 sarcotesta which in the hving seed may have emarginata, from the 

 formed a wing. If, as often happens, the Westphalian series, 

 seed were preserved with the narrow border „°jj ^^ '^ ^ °° 

 only it would be assigned to Cordaicarpus, 

 many species of which are undoubtedly incomplete Samaropsis 

 seeds. 



The seeds described by Lindley and Hutton as Cardiocarpon 

 aculum (fig. 444, p. 171) have been made by Arber^ the type of 

 a new genus Cornucarpus, the distinguishing feature being the 

 triangular form and the apical horns of the wing. The seeds 

 figured by Arber^ from the Kent coalfield as Cornucarpus acubus 

 are, however, not identical with the type of Lindley and Hutton, 

 which has the characters of Samaropsis. Samaropsis is widely 

 distributed in Permo-Carboniferous rocks in Europe and North 

 America and is recorded also from India* (fig. 504), China*, 

 South Africa 5 (fig. 503), South America* (fig. 502, F, G) and 

 AustraUa''. Some seeds of this form were certainly borne on 

 Cordaitean plants (cf fig. 480, A), but seeds of similar type have 

 been found in organic connexion with the foHage of Pteridosperms 

 (figs. 442, 445, pp. 167, 172). The Permian 'cone-scales' bearing 



1 Arber, E. A. N. (14) p. 97. ^ Arber, E. A. N. (09) PL i. fig. 5. 



3 Feistmantel (79^) « Schenk (83) A. PI. xliv. fig. 8. 



= Seward (97^) A. ' White (08) B. ' Feistmantel (90) A. p. 164. 



s. m 22 



