686 Scott. — On Bensonites fnsiformis, sp. nov ., a fossil associated 
The sporangia are almost spherical in shape ; the ‘ stomium ’ is well 
shown in Plate XXXIV, figs, i and 2, st. 
They are generally filled with spores. I have been fortunate in finding 
one sporangium filled with germinating spores (Plate XXXIV, fig. 2) though 
the stages of germination are not so clearly shown as in S. oldhamia . 
This is of the greater interest as it is the third example in this 
genus in which the spores have been found in a state of germination. It is 
curious that up to the present this should be the only genus of fossil plants 
in which this phenomenon has been observed. 
We now return to a fuller consideration of the ‘ head ’ of Bensonites , and 
to a discussion of the various views which have been held about the fossil 
since it was first noticed. 
The strong resemblance of the sporangial wall of Stanropteris burnt- 
islandica to the epidermis of Bensonites gave rise to the suggestion that the 
‘ Bensonites ’ might be an aposporous outgrowth from a sporangium, the 
‘body’ representing the prothallus bearing an archegonium with a beak, 
containing an embryo (Text-figs. 2 and 3). 
On the other hand transverse sections through the head have been sen! 
me by observers as examples of ‘ new ’ megaspores (Text-fig. J, b ). If this 
were the case we should have to look on the whole ‘ Bensonites ’ as a mega- 
sporangium or primitive ovule, and on this view a female organ would be 
provided for Stanropteris burntislandica , the ordinary sporangia becoming 
microsporangia. 
This tempting view, however, is difficult to hold, as in the much better 
preserved Stanropteris oldhamia , in which the structure of the petioles and 
sporangia is hardly distinguishable from Stanropteris burntislandica , there is 
no sign (although I have searched every available specimen) of any such 
organ corresponding to Bensonites. 
The third theory is that Bensonites is a gland. The very striking 
resemblance of the tissue to that found in Lyginodendron oldhanmnn 
glands supports this view. It is known that glands of some importance 
occurred in one genus of Carboniferous plants, so that it is quite probable that 
they should be found in others too. 
If this view be the right one, the glands must have been of some 
considerable importance ; they are supplied with a vascular strand and a 
beak, through which their contents could have been ejected. The ‘head ’ 
in this case would represent the partially disorganized tissue, in which the 
secretion was formed. 
