Lycopodiaceous Cones from the Lower Coal Measures. 389 
That it is unlikely that Spencerites is at all a primitive cone is also 
shown by the fact that a prosenchymatous sporangial wall is known in 
no other strobiloid Pteridophyte. If it were a primitive condition we 
should expect to see at least traces in other Lycopods ; such traces we 
do not find. 
The fact that both species of Spencerites have elaborated spores is 
also against their primitive nature. 
It may be objected that the sporophylls of Spencerites are really quite 
short. This is certainly true, but reference to Miss Berridge’s paper 
(or Text-fig. 4) will show that if measured to the lamina they are long com- 
pared with such sporophylls as those of Bothrodendron mundum. 
It is unfortunate that we know so little of the morphology of Spen- 
cerites majusculus ; the analogy 
of Spencerites insignis should 
teach caution in drawing argu- 
ments from the other and rarer 
species. 
It is at any rate interest- 
ing that Spencerites is the only 
homosporous Lycopod which 
is known to have attained to 
even moderate dimensions. I 
possess a section of a branch 
of Spencerites (A. 31), dupli- 
cates of which are in the Man- 
chester Museum Collection, 
over 30 mm. in diameter. This 
is, I believe, by far the largest known branch of a homosporous Lycopod. 
Throughout this discussion I have assumed that Spencerites is homo- 
sporous ; there is so far as I know no evidence against this, and although 
it is of course impossible to prove that it did not have microspores, the 
evidence in favour of its being homosporous seems to be considerable. 
The theory that Spencerites is a cone retaining primitive characters 
really rests entirely on the assumption that the Lycopod cones are derived 
from a condition resembling that of Sphenophyllum Dawsoni , and that the 
peculiar features of the Spencerites cone can be made to square with such 
ancestry. 
The evidence for any connexion between the Sphenophyllales and the 
Lycopodiales does not seem to be of very great weight. It is entirely 
comprised under two heads : — 
1. The general resemblance between the wood of Cheirostrobus and 
that of some of the Lepidodendraceae. 
1. The resemblance between the pair of sporangia and the organ 
Text-fig. 4. Spencerites insignis , Scott. Diagram- 
matic radial longitudinal section of a single sporophyll, 
to show general morphology, the considerable length of 
the limb, and the loop at Lp reminiscent of the loop 
which surrounds the ligule in Bothrodendron and Meso- 
strobus. Modified from Miss Berridge’s figure. 
