XV] SPENCERITES 195 



and the recent type of strobilus. It is interesting to find, as 

 Lang points out, that in the original account of the fossil cone 

 by Williamson, the view is expressed that the sporangiophores 

 were confluent. An examination of the section figured by 

 Williamson^ led Lang to confirm this opinion. It would be 

 out of place to enter here into a detailed comparison of 

 Spencerites insignis and the cone oi Lycopodium, but the resem- 

 blances are considered by Lang to be sufficiently close to suggest 

 that the striking similarity may be indicative of relationship ^ 



It is worthy of notice that the radial section of Spencerites 

 (fig. 192) presents a fairly close resemblance to a corresponding 

 section through a cone-scale oi Agathis (Kauri Pine)l In each 

 case the megasporangium is attached by a narrow pedicel to 

 the sporophyll and the latter has a similar form in the two 

 plants, though the extent of the resemblance is somewhat 

 lessened by Lang's more complete account of the Palaeozoic 

 type. If the Spencerites sporangia possessed an integument 

 the similarity with the Agathis ovule would of course be much 

 closer: recent palaeobotanical investigations have shown that 

 ovules and sporangia are not separated by impassable barriers. 



[Since this Chapter was set up in type a paper has appeared 

 by Dr Bruno Kubart on a now species of Spencerites spore, 

 S.membranaceus, from the Ostrau-Karwiner Coal-basin (Austria). 

 The spores are larger than those of /S. insignis and in some the 

 cells of a prothallus are preserved. Kubart figures a section of 

 a spore containing a group of seven cells, a central cell, which 

 he regards as an antheridial mother-cell, surrounded by six wall- 

 cells. Kubart (90).J 



1 Williamson (78) A. PI. xxii. fig. 53. 



» Lang (08) p. 3C7. Since this was written a paper has been published by 

 Mr Watson on a new type of Lycopodiaceous cone from the Lower Coal-Measures 

 (Mesostrobus) : in an appendix he criticises Dr Lang's views in regard to Spen- 

 cerites. [Watson, Annals of Botany, Vol. xxiii. p. 379, l'J09.] 



■' Seward and Ford (OC) p. 395. 



