3 o 
Review ). 
pages, we may hope in time to come nearer to our goal, the 
discovery of actual lines of descent, just as the morphologist, by 
first determining his parastichies, is ultimately able, by their help, 
eto find the true genetic spiral. In the present paper only on 
series has been considered, and that with reference only to one 
particular character; possibly we may endeavour to fill in other 
lines at some future time. 
REVIEW. 
On the Structure and Affinities of Fossil Plants from the Palaeozoic 
Rocks.—IV. The .Seed-like Fructification of Lepiducarpun, a genus of 
Lycopodiaceous Cones from the Carboniferous Formation. By D. H. 
Scott, M.A., Pli.I)., P'.R.S., Hon. Keeper of ilie Jodrell laboratory, 
Ro}’al Gardens, Kew. Phil. Trans. 1901. 
A T the present moment the appearance of this notable memoir 
is particularly opportune. The gap between the Pterido- 
phytes and Spermaphytes has been appreciably norrowed by the 
discoveries in Ginkgo and the Cycads. But the affinities of the 
Spermaphytes may still be regarded as an open question. To each 
of the three great phyla of Pteridophytes has the possibility of seed 
production been attributed. Some hold to the view that the 
Lycopods have blossomed forth into Spermaphytes; others search 
for evidence of seeds on Catamites, whilst a third view, that of the 
Filicinean ancestry of Cycads, and probably of Gymnosperms 
generally, has become familiar to Botanists in this country through 
the able exposition of his views by the author of the subject of 
this notice. 
In Lepidocarpon , the name given to certain peculiar Lyco- 
podinean cones with seed-like fructifications, we touch new ground 
and are shown a structure, which, whether a seed or not on strictly 
formal lines, may shed considerable light on the question of the 
possible way in which the structure we recognize as a seed may 
have been evolved. 
The essential facts of the discovery are briefly as follows— 
The supposed Gymnosperm seed which Williamson erroneously 
referred to Cardiocarpon anotnalum of Cairuthers is now shewn 
to be a Lepidostroboid macrosporangium containing a single 
