XIl] 



SPHENOPHYLLUM 



3 



on its upper surface one group, or possibly two groups, of four 

 sessile sporangia between the narrow coherent bases of the 

 laminae and the sinus between the terminal lobes (fig. 113, C). 

 Another characteristic feature is the greater length of the 

 intemodes ; this renders the cone less compact and less sharply 

 diflferentiated from the vegetative shoots than those of other 

 species. A specimen in Dr Kidston's collection illustrates the 



Fig. 113. 



A. 

 B. 

 C. 



Sphenophyllostachys Borneri. (Solms-Laubach.) 



Sphenophyllum trichomatosum Stur. 



Sphenophyllum inajus. Bronn. (A — C. After Kidston.) 



peculiar character of the fertile portion of this species ; it con- 

 sists of an axis bearing a succession of lax sporophylls succeeded 

 above and below by whorls of sterile leaves. In this species, 

 therefore, we cannot speak of a compact strobilus at the end of 

 a shoot of limited growth, but of axes in which sterile and 

 fertile leaves are borne alternately^ a condition recalling the 



1 Bower (08) p. 404, fig. 221. 



