the more primitive type in the Ferns f 123 
of Mr. Carruthers, of seeing the original specimen, and there 
certainly appears to be an oblique annulus, similar to that of 
the Hymenophyllaceae : it is however to be noted, as indeed 
Mr. Carruthers himself remarks, that these sporangia are 
larger than those of present Filmy Ferns, while the stalk 
appears to be a relatively short and massive one: these 
points make the further elucidation of the nature of such 
sporangia very desirable, while in my opinion they raise 
a doubt as to the near correspondence of this Carboniferous 
Fern with our present Hymenophyllaceae. The case of Hy - 
menophyllites Weissii , Sch., figured by Schimper, from the 
coal of Saarbriicken is much less satisfactory 1 , the reference 
of this to the Hymenophyllaceae depending chiefly upon the 
character of the sorus as a whole (if indeed that which is so 
described be really a sorus), while the sporangia themselves 
have not been distinguished or described in detail. The large 
and typical Devonian Fern, Palaeopteris hibernica , Schimper, 
(Archaeopteris hibernica, Forbes) has also been referred to 
the Hymenophyllaceae 2 : here again it is the character of the 
sorus as a whole, not of the sporangium, which has led to the 
conclusion : the sporangia themselves seem not to have yet 
been seen, and therefore the reference to the Hymenophylla- 
ceae cannot be taken as more than a provisional suggestion 3 . 
Mr. Kidston, after a careful re-examination of the specimens of 
this species in the British Museum, and in Dublin, comes to 
the very divergent conclusion that ‘ the true position of 
Archaeopteris hibernica is in the Marattiaceae/ I have also 
examined specimens in the British Museum, and failed to 
recognise any distinct evidence of the Hymenophyllaceous 
affinity. 
Stur in speaking of those Carboniferous Ferns which he 
refers to the Polypodiaceae, regards their position in that 
1 Compare Schimper, Traite d. Paleophytologie, PI. XXVIII. 
2 Schimper, Traite, PL XXXVI ; Carruthers, Geol. Mag., IX, 1872, p. 3 and 
Plate II. 
3 See also Kidston, on the fructification and affinities of Archaeopteris hibernica ; 
Forbes, Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1888. 
