FERNS— FRUCTIFICATIONS 289 



dosperm Lyginodendron, and the Crossotheca type occurs 

 in species of Pecopteris (e.g. P. exigud) as well as in 

 Sphenopteris. Even typical " Marattiaceous " synangia, 

 such as those of Scolecopteris, are remarkably like other 

 fructifications (Telangium Scotti, Benson) which there 

 is reason to regard as microsporangia. Hence the 

 question has arisen, whether all the supposed synangia 

 of Marattiaceae may not represent the microsporangia 

 of Pteridosperms, a suggestion which has been supported 

 by the remarkably close agreement between the stamens 

 of the Mesozoic Bennettiteae and the fertile fronds of 

 Marattiaceae (see Chapter XIII.). On the whole, 

 however, the balance of evidence, if we also take the 

 anatomical data into account (see below, p. 294), is 

 still decidedly in favour of the view that a considerable 

 group of Marattiaceous Ferns existed in Carboniferous 

 times, side by side with Pteridosperms of similar habit. 

 The former are mainly, though not exclusively, char- 

 acteristic of the Permian and Upper Coal-measures, and 

 are not known to extend to the Lower Carboniferous. 



As regards the other Eusporangiate family there 

 is little to say. A couple of genera, Rhacopteris and 

 Noeggerathia, formerly referred by Stur to the Ophio- 

 glosseae, were more probably the microsporophylls of 

 Pteridosperms. A fructification resembling that of 

 an Ophioglossum has been described by Renault, from 

 the Permo-Carboniferous of Autun, under the name of 

 Ophioglossites. We shall find in the Botryopterideae 

 — to be described in the next chapter — a family, 

 which, in certain characters, bears a resemblance to 

 Ophioglosseae, though very different in other respects. 

 There is some slight evidence for the existence in 



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