REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR, 1922 55 
filled, in 1917 he published a short description of this material under 
the name of Spermolithus devonicus.’® For this country, 
Mr David White,” paleobotanist of the United States Geological 
Survey, discovered in 1900 the seeds of Aneimites (Adiantites), 
whose fern nature had hitherto been unquestioned, in the lower 
Pottsville (lower Pennsylvanian) of West Virginia; and this occur- 
rence gave us the hope of finding seeds or forerunners of seeds in 
our Upper Devonian plant beds in New York. 
Study of all the Gilboa material collected has shown that this 
Upper Devonian tree, while of simpler organization, bears a strong 
resemblance to the Carboniferous Ly ginopteris and, with it, 
belongs among the seed ferns (Pteridospermophyta ; Cycadofilicales 
of some). The generic name Eospermatopteris is here pro- 
posed to include the two species of Gilboa trees. 
Seed ferns must have had their origin in primitive ferns earlier 
than the Upper Devonian. The climax of their development 
eccurred in the Pennsylvanian and early Permian; but, beyond the 
Paleozoic, none are as yet known. 
Eospermatopteris gen. nov. 
Eos-dawn; sperma-seed; pteris-fern. 
Stumps and trunks. Plates 2, 3, 4 and 7 will give a very good 
idea of the size and shape of the stumps of these trees, and the lower 
surface of the bases is well shown in plate 5. In the forty more or 
less complete stumps which the Museum has obtained there is great 
variability in size and some variability in shape. The bases are 
bulbous, as might be expected of trees growing under swampy con- 
ditions, in some cases more spreading than in others. The height 
at which the trunks were broken off above the base varies from I 
foot 4 inches in the case of some of the smaller stumps to about 3 
feet and slightly over in the case of the largest stumps. The cir- 
cumference at the spreading part of the base varies from 3 feet 10 
inches in the smallest specimen (height 2 feet) to 11 feet in the 
largest specimen, which has a diameter of 21% inches at a height of 
22 inches. Others of the largest stumps show circumferences 
between 814 feet and 11 feet and have diameters up to 2 feet at 
heights varying from 20 inches to 2 feet. One of these large stumps 
shows very slight spreading at the base. With a base having a cir- 
cumference of 814 feet (diameter 32 inches) the trunk at the height 
* Johnson, Thomas, Sci. Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc. 1917, 15, no. 23:218, 
219, pl. 11, figs. 4-6, pl. 12, figs. 1, 2. 
“White, David, Smith. Misc. Coll., pt. 3, 1904, 47:322-31, pls. 17, 18. 
