KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 51. N:o 7. 9 
A critical examination of the drawings of these authors, however, shows that 
no importance should be attached to these statements, as they are all in the highest 
degree unreliable. Thus, GÖPPERT regarded tubercles and ScHENK and GOTHAN the 
existing convexity of the lamina between two not yet developed segments of the 
third order as sori, whilst other authors gave a wrong interpretation of something 
else. The incorrectness of SCHENK's opinion was already long ago pointed out by 
NATHORST (1878, p. 30), who with good reason considered GÖPPERT's statement as not 
quite reliable either. NATHORST's statement was founded on the specimen pl. 2, fig. 5. 
On microscopical examination after maceration, however, the rounded structures inter- 
preted as sori proved, as he has kindly told me, to be protuberances in the matrix. 
Accordingly, we may assume that sori have never been seen, and it is note- 
worthy that in the great number of macerated as well as unmacerated fronds of 
L. Ottonis which Professor NATHORST and the writer have examined, there was never 
found the very least vestige of anything which could be interpreted as reproductive 
organs. 
There is, accordingly, no direct ground for the theory that Lepidopteris belongs 
to the Ferns. Not even the habit speaks directly in favour of this supposition, 
for, since the discovery of the Pteridosperms, an agreement on this point no longer 
constitutes a criterion as to a plant belonging to the group in question; whereas, 
facts speaking in favour of an opposite opinion are not quite missing. Among these 
the construction of the stomata and the thick consistence of the epidermis should 
be noticed. The cuticle, it is true, has only been examined in Lepidopteris Ottonis; 
but it is, I suppose, probable that the stomata and the epidermis in the other spe- 
cies, which fully agree regarding consistence, are on the whole of essentially the 
same construction. 
As already mentioned, the stomata of L. Ottonis have in the Gymnosperms 
their nearest analogy among those in recent plants. Moreover, as similar stomata 
and such a pronounced xerophytism have not been found in indubitable fossil Ferns, 
and have no analogy in recent ones, these facts, as I (1914, p. 19) have more par- 
ticularly tried to show somewhere else, give positive support to the opinion that the 
genus is not a filicinean one. 
Further on I shall put forward circumstances speaking for L. Ottonis belonging 
to the same plant as the male organ described by Professor NATHORST (1908, p. 20) 
as Antholithus Zeilleri. If we assume this affinity — which, however, cannot be 
fully proved — LL. Ottonis would belong, perhaps not to the Pteridosperms, but 
rather to some Mesozoic successor of this plant-group, a Successor in which the 
sporophylls had become more differentiated from the vegetative foliage. 
As for its geological appearance, L. Ottonis is restricted to the Rhaetic, for 
which formation it constitutes an important ”Leitfossil. The geographical distribu- 
tion also seems to have been limited, the plant having been found up to the pre- 
sent only in Germany, Sweden, and Poland. In Germany it has been described from 
Wilmsdorf, Matzdorf, and Ludwigsdorf in Upper Silesia, Coburg in 'Thuringia, and 
Seinstedt in Brunswick. In Poland it has been found near Wielun. In Sweden 
EK. Sv. Vet. Akad Handl. Band 51. N:o 7. 2 
