PECOPTERIDEAE 467 



are attached at the ends of the stout lateral veins of 

 the pinnules (see Fig. 175). They are described as 

 forming a wide angle, when in the natural condition, 

 with the plane of the lamina, so that they no doubt 

 hung down freely from the under side of the fertile 

 frond. The seeds, like those of Aneimites, are winged 

 (Fig. 175), and resemble Samaropsis, the seed of the 

 Gymnosperm Porycordaites (see p. 520) so closely, that 

 the two may easily be confused when found isolated. 



The species P. Pluck- 

 eneti belongs to a section 

 of the genus character- 

 ised, according to Pro- 

 fessor Zeiller, by the 

 large, lobed pinnules, 

 and the dichotomously 

 branched frond, with a FlG - ns--r>«**r>' pi***™*: Fragment 



' 01 a fertile pinna with seeds attached near 



bud, capable of further the ends of the lobes - x 3- From zeiiier, 



after one of Grand'Eury's specimens. 



growth, in the axil of 



each bifurcation. 1 Though usually included in Peco- 

 pteris, some authors have placed the species in other 

 genera, and notably Sterzel, in 1883, founded a new 

 genus, Dicksoniites, for its reception, because he ob- 

 served, in some specimens, round discs at the margins 

 of the pinnules, which he compared to the sori of 

 .Dicksonia? The nature of these bodies appears to 

 have been elucidated by a recent observation of M. 

 Grand'Eury's. He states that he found " stellate groups 

 of anthers in the place of the receptacles," and that 

 they were borne on different specimens from those 



1 Zeiller, Elements de Paltobotanique, p. 89, 1900. 

 2 " Uber Dicksoniites Pluckeneti," Bot. Centralblatt. Bd. xiii. 1883. 



3 1 



