62 



STUDIES IN FOSSIL BOTANY 



Palaeostachya gracilis, described by Renault, 1 each whorl 



of bracts has about twenty 

 members ; the sporangiophores, 

 about ten in each verticil, are 

 inserted immediately above the 

 bracts, in the angle between the 

 latter and the axis. In the 

 diagrammatic Figure, 24, A, 

 the position of the sporangio- 

 phores is well shown. In Fig. 

 25 another species, Palaeo- 

 stachya pedunculata, is repre- 

 sented on a small scale, as in 

 the actual specimen. In this 

 case a large number of cones 

 are seen attached to a Cala- 

 marian branch. 



While the position of the 

 sporangiophores in Palaeo- 

 stachya is thus strikingly dif- 

 ferent from that in Calamo- 

 stachys, their structure is almost 

 identical. Each sporangio- 

 phore, as in that genus, is 

 peltate, bearing four sporangia 



Fig. 25. — Palaeostachya fedunculata. On ltS lower Surface. The 



Specimen from the coal-shales, showing c - 



a fertile shoot bearing about a dozen spores are ot the same type 

 Z" Tof^i^ILwiiw as in the homosporous Cola- 

 son, pidi. Tram. will. Coii. 1060. mostackys. The occurrence of 



1 This author uses the generic name Volkmannia, and refers these 

 fructifications to the vegetative shoots known as Asterophyttites ; see 

 below, p. 70; Renault, Cours de hot. foss. vol. ii. p. 114, Plates xviii. and 

 xix. ; Flore fossile a "Antun et d'Epinac, p. 74, Plates xxix. and xxx. 



