E. H. Sellards. 
1 75 
NOTES ON THE SPORE-BEARING ORGAN 
CODON 01' 11 EC A AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH 
THE CYCADOFILICES. 
By E. H. Sellards. 
[Text Pig. 7.] 
JHE spore-bearing organ, Codonotheca, was described in detail by 
the writer in 1903 from impressions in iron-clay concretions 
from Mason Creek, Illinois. 1 A few additional specimens contained 
in the museum of the University of Florida direct attention anew to 
this organ, and invite renewed comparison between this and other 
known spore-hearing organs. The following description is abstracted 
from the detailed account in the paper to which reference has been 
made. 
The organ is a symmetrical cup- or bell-shaped body, made up 
of a circle of six equidistant, lamina-like, spore-bearing divisions. 
These, arising at a common level, unite laterally at the base, are 
free at the tips, and thus surround a central cavity. Each division 
is traversed on the inner or spore-bearing side by two strong 
vascular bundles, supplied by the dichotomy of six main strands. 
The union of the parts below forms a cylindrical base, while the 
whole organ is borne on a slender petiole. The base which seems 
to have consisted for the most part of an external envelope of non- 
resistant fleshy tissue, is usually more or less completely flattened 
in the fossil condition. It is traversed by lines often irregular and 
wavy, lying near the surface and extending along the dorsal side of 
the spore-bearing divisions, probably representing sub-epidermal 
strands of strengthening tissue. The fusion of the six main vascular 
strands forms a cone-shaped body pointed below, and large at the 
top where it breaks into bundles. This area occasionally retains its 
cylindrical shape (Text-fig. 7. 1). The six strands originating at a 
common level diverge and dichotomize also at approximately the 
same level. The twelve bundles thus formed pass into the six 
spore-bearing divisions or segments, each segment receiving one 
bundle from each of the two adjacent main strands (5). 
This arrangement of bundles is verified from numerous specimens 
and is significant as probably indicating that the six segments arose 
1 Codonotheca, a New Type of Spore-Bearing organ from the Coal 
Measures. Amer. Journ. Sci., Vol. XVI, pp. 87-95, pi. VIII. 
