92 E. H. Sellards — Codonotheca. 



intermediate group, the Cjcadofilices, the more generalized 

 divisions of which are believed to form, to some extent at least, 

 a connecting series between the ferns and cycads. The stem 

 structure indicates considerable diversity among the several 

 divisions of the group. Unfortunately hardly anything is 

 known of the fructification. Certain sporangia of the Calynn' 

 ynatotheca type have been found so closely associated with one 

 genus of the Cycadofilices, Lyginodendron, as to make their 

 connection probable."^ Lyginodendron has linely divided 

 foliage, and is one of the more fernlike of its class. The small 

 species of Calyminatotheca found in association with Lyginoden- 

 dron have large sporangia grouped in a cluster at the end of a 

 petiole, free at their tips, free or united at their bases, and 

 borne on dimorphic fronds. A number of other plants of vari- 

 ous structure have been referred to Ccdymmatotheca. The 

 largest of these and also the first described species of the genus, 

 C. Scliimjperi Stur, is an imperfectly known fossil. According 

 to Sturf the plant consists of six parts, 18°^"^ long, united at 

 the base by threes, and is apparently entirely different from 

 many of the smaller species which have been referred to the 

 genus. 



Aphlel)ioGa7yns Stur is another imperfectly understood 

 genus of unknown affinity. :[: This remarkable fructification 

 consists of about five foliar jDarts, more or less deeply lobed or 

 fringed, arranged in an involucre-like whorl. According to 

 Stur, the sporangia are small, solitary, and deep set, and are 

 placed thickly over the upper or inner surface of the "involu- 

 cre." The spores are not described, and the vegetative part of 

 the plant, except for the branching axis, is unknown. 



Codonotheca suggests at first sight a possible resemblance 

 to the male flowers of some gymnosperms. Tumhoa ( Wel- 

 ^oitschiaj has microsporophylls united in a circle at the base. 

 The micros23orophylls of the Mesozoic Bennettitacese, also, as 

 Wieland has shown, are fused in a circle at the base. But the 

 relation to these genera is probably not close, since the Ben- 

 nettitace^e, as well as Tumhoa, seem to have an abortive, seed- 

 bearing cone at the center.§ 



While the genus may find its place as an aberrant type among 

 one of the well-known classes of Pteridophytes or even gym- 

 nosperms of Cordaitalean affinity, it may on the other hand 



* Scott, studies in Fossil Botany, pp. 334-336; Benson, Ann. Bot., vol. 

 xvi, pp. 575-576, 1902. 



f Die Culm-Flora der Ostrauer und Waldenburger ScMchten, Abhandl. der 

 k. k. geol. Reichsanst. zu Wien, vol. viii, p. 149, 1877. 



tibid.. p. 304, pi. 37, 1877 ; Die Carbon-Flora der Schatzlaren Schicbten, 

 ibid., vol. xi, Abtb. I, p. 15, 1885. 



§ Wieland, A Study of Some American Fossil Cycads, pt. iv, Tbis Journal, 

 vol. xi, p. 424, 1901. 



