DEVELOPMENT OF PALEOBOTANY IN THE ILLINOIS BASIN 35 



Theodore Delevoryas quickly came to the attention of the paleobotanical 

 community with a series of coal-ball studies, many carried out jointly with his 

 classmate, Jeanne Morgan, on ferns, calamites, lycopods, pteridosperms, and 

 cordaites from the Illinois Basin (Morgan and Delevoryas, 1952a, b, 1954; Del- 

 evoryas and Morgan, 1952, 1954a, b, c; Delevoryas, 1955b, 1956, 1957, 1958; 

 Cohen and Delevoryas, 1959). A Delevoryas (1964b) review of ontogenetic studies 

 of fossil plants conveys considerable insight into the ontogenetic facets of Carboni- 

 ferous plants revealed by petrifaction studies. After other contributions on coal- 

 ball plants from the basin, Delevoryas turned to Mesozoic plant studies, in par- 

 ticular the cycadeoids. 



Donald Eggert, one of the first to study with Delevoryas, developed the 

 concept of determinate growth into important contributions (1961, 1962) on the on- 

 togeny of Carboniferous arborescent Lycopsida and Sphenopsida. After a post- 

 doctoral year with Stewart in Urbana, Eggert established the first paleobotanical 

 program at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1961 . Many of his sub- 

 sequent contributions have been on Paleozoic ferns, particularly on coenopterid 

 ferns (Eggert, 1964) and Ankyropteris (Tedelea) glabra, which has become one of 

 the best known ferns as a result of his studies (Eggert, 1959b, 1963; Eggert and 

 Taylor, 1966). Eggert later moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. 



Thomas Taylor (1962, 1965, 1966, 1967a, b; Taylor and Leisman, 1963; 

 Taylor and Delevoryas, 1964; Taylor and Eggert, 1969b) contributed extensively 

 to our knowledge of Pennsylvanian ovules from the basin. He established the 

 first paleobotany program and research laboratory in Paleozoic paleobotany at Chi- 

 cago Circle. 



Recollections of Some Important Discoveries 



Some of the plants found in coal balls, although now known to be common 

 in the Illinois Basin, aroused great interest when they were discovered. Each 

 paleobotanist seems to have his own favorite discovery. Hall wrote: 



The shoot apex of Calamites was, like so much in paleobotany, a matter of 

 chance and a good saw cut. In fact, it was several peels before I rea- 

 lized that we had a stem tip [Melchior and Hall, 1961]. I was, however, 

 rather excited about the Anachoropteris-Tubicaulis specimen. The pre- 

 servation seemed admirable. I spent a lot of time trying to get a feel 

 for the 3 -dimensional aspect of it, making a number of camera lucida 

 drawings, and then putting them together in an isometric drawing. I 

 thought more paleobotanists ought to use that technique [Hall, 1961]. 



Baxter wrote us: 



The most exciting discovery in paleobotany would have to be shared be- 

 tween Calamocarpon ins ignis and Elaterites trif erens . I had been puzzling 

 over the isolated large megasporangia, which ultimately were found at- 

 tached to a Calamostachys -type cone, for over 15 years before it was fin- 

 ally possible to show that it was a nearly seed-like member of the Sphen- 

 opsida [Baxter, 1963]. The Elaterites triferens spores and cone were a 

 high spot in that it was possible to observe the opening of the elaters 

 on the spores after 25 million years of their being appressed to the 

 spore in the cone specimen [Baxter and Leisman, 1967; Wilson, 19^3, 1963]. 



Stewart wrote, "I think I got as excited about Medullosa pandurata (M. 

 noei) as any project I have done. Finding micro- and mega-gametophytes in Pachy- 

 testa was also a spectacular thing" [Stewart, 1951a, b]. 



