68 “ The Origin of Gymnosperms ” 
“THE ORIGIN OF GYMNOSPERMS” AT THE LINNEAN 
SOCIETY. 
I 
A T the meeting of the Linnean Society on Thursday, March 15th, 
the evening was devoted to a discussion on the “ Origin of 
Gymnosperms.” There was a very full gathering of botanists, 
including several who had come to London specially. The discus¬ 
sion was to have been opened by Addresses from four Fellows, 
Professor F. W. Oliver, Mr. E. Newell Arber, Mr. A. C. Seward 
and Dr. D. H. Scott, each dealing with the subject from a some¬ 
what distinct standpoint. Abstracts from these addresses were 
prepared and circulated beforehand. In the event, the first three 
addresses lasted from 8.20 till 10.5, occupying about 35 minutes 
each. At the close of Mr. Seward’s remarks, the President sug¬ 
gested that the fourth address (Dr. Scott’s) and the general 
discussion should be deferred till the next meeting on April 5th. 1 
This proposal was accepted by the meeting. It has been thought 
that a full report of this discussion would be of considerable interest, 
and permission has been kindly given by the Council of the Society, 
and by the Openers, for this to appear in The New Phytologist. 
The speakers have been good enough to revise the proofs of the 
reports of their respective addresses. 
Professor Oliver, in opening the subject of discussion 
from the more general stand-point, said that in the old days before 
the situation arose that gave point to one aspect of to-night’s 
discussion it was always supposed that the relative abundance of 
fossil remains of Vascular Cryptogams at any geological period 
shewed a rough correspondence with its age. As one went back, 
first one and then another group of seed plants died out, till there 
remained only the gymnospermous phylum of the Cordaiteae which 
lost itself in the Devonian rocks alongside of Pteridophytic forms 
from which, or in common with which, it, and the other seed plants, 
might have taken origin. 
This conception of the relations in the remote past was quite 
consistent with the results of the Hofmeisterian School of 
Morphologists, which pointed to a passage of Vascular Cryptogams 
into seed-bearing plants. 
The inevitable oscillation of views as to the immediate affinities 
of the Gymnosperms had not in any way undermined the Hofmei¬ 
sterian position. Whilst both the ferns and the lycopods had 
successively found favour in this connexion, the current of opinion 
had latterly set strongly in favour of the ferns. Those who 
were conversant with recent advances in fossil-botany are aware 
that good reason had been found to transfer, wholesale, plants once 
supposed to be Ci yptogamic to the status of seed-bearing plants. 
He would illustrate the general nature of these plants, which 
included the bulk of the carboniferous “ferns,” by special reference 
to Neuropteris heterophylla, Lyginodendron oldliamium and Medullosa 
anglica. Fern-like plants such as these, that bore seeds, it was 
i This date was subsequently altered to May 3rd, 
