4 oo STUDIES IN FOSSIL BOTANY 



The sporangia are long and pointed, resembling those 

 of Mr. Kidston's Crossotheca in shape and size, but are 

 united in their lower part to form large synangia often 

 with as many as eight members. 



Miss Benson described the synangia as borne 

 terminally on the ultimate ramifications of a rachis, 

 but I have since satisfied myself that they were in 

 reality seated on a flat disc or lamina, quite compar- 

 able to a fertile pinnule of Crossotheca. Thus the 

 most important of the distinctions enumerated by 

 Mr. Kidston {I.e. p. 424) between Crossotheca. and 

 Telangium Scotti is removed, and I have little doubt 

 that Miss Benson's fossil will find a place in the genus 

 Crossotheca. The possible relation of Telangium Scotti 

 to Lyginodendron requires further investigation, but it 

 is not unlikely that it may prove to belong to one or 

 other of the forms at present grouped under the name 

 Lyginodendron oldhamium} 



It may be mentioned that in the same petrifactions 

 in which Telangium Scotti occurs, bisporangiate synangia 

 have lately been observed, but with the additional com- 

 plication that each sporangium is subdivided into two 

 loculi. It is possible that these specimens may have 

 belonged to one of Mr. Kidston's species of Crossotheca?' 



Though many interesting questions as to the male 

 fructification of Lyginodendron still await solution, the 

 main point is made clear by Mr. Kidston's discovery 

 that Crossotheca, hitherto assumed to be the fertile frond 



1 An interesting point emphasised by Miss Benson is the resemblance of 

 the spores of Telangium to the pollen-grains found in the pollen-chamber 

 of Lagenostoma ovoides. 



2 I am indebted to my friend Professor F. W. Oliver, F. R.S., for my 

 knowledge of these preparations. 



