having its own vascular system. Various other seeds of the same
type are known, and in a great number of instances Grand’ Eury
has found the fronds of Neuropterideae (Medulloseae) in close
association with definite species of seeds, so there can be little doubt
that the whole family was seed-bearing. Very little is known at
present of the male organs. Some authors have been so much
impressed by the similarity of this extinct family to the Cycads,
that they have regarded them as being on the direct line of descent
of the latter group; it is more probable, however, that they formed
a short divergent phylum, distinct, though not remote, from the
Cycadean stock.
Pecopterideae.—It has now been established that the form-genus Pecopteris, once regarded as representing the typical Marattiaceous foliage, was in part made up of seed-bearing plants. In 1905 Grand’ Eury discovered the seeds of Pecopteris Pluckeneti, an Upper Coal Measure species, attached, in immense numbers, to the fronds, which are but little modified as compared with the ordinary vegetative foliage. The seeds are flat and winged, closely resembling those of some Cordaiteae (see below). Another form of fructification, compared to the sori of Dicksonia, appears to represent the male organs. There is reason to believe that other species of Pecopteris and similar genera, (Callipteris and Mariopteris) bore seeds, though the artificial group Pecopterideae probably also includes the fronds of true Marattiaceous Ferns.
Aneimiteae.—The genus Aneimites, resembling the Maidenhair Ferns in habit, has now been transferred to the Pteridosperms, the seeds having been discovered in 1904 by David White. In A. fertilis, from the Pottsville beds (Millstone Grit) of West Virginia, the rhomboidal seeds, flattened and winged like those of Cordaiteae, are borne terminally on the lateral pinnae of a frond, which elsewhere bears the characteristic cuneiform leaflets. Continuity between seeds and frond was also demonstrated in another species, A. tenuifolius. The allied genus Eremopteris occurs in association with seeds of a similar platyspermic type.
The Pteridosperms, of which only a few examples have been considered, evidently constituted a group of vast extent in Palaeozoic times. In a large majority of the Fern-like fossils of that period the evidence is in favour of reproduction by seeds, rather than by the cryptogamic methods of the true Ferns. The class, though clearly allied to the typical Gymnosperms, may be kept distinct for the present on account of the relatively primitive characters shown in the anatomy and morphology, and may be provisionally defined as follows: plants resembling Ferns in habit and in many anatomical characters, but bearing seeds of a Cycadean type; seeds and microsporangia borne on fronds only slightly modified as compared with the vegetative leaves.
Gymnospermous remains are common in Palaeozoic strata from the Devonian onwards. The investigations of the last quarter of the 19th century established that these early representatives of the class did not, as a rule, belong to any of its existing families, but formed for the most part a distinct group, that of the Cordaitales, which has Gymnosperms. long since died out. Specimens of true Cycads or Conifers are rare or doubtful until we come to the latest Palaeozoic rocks. Our knowledge of the Cordaiteae (the typical family of the class Cordaitales) is chiefly due to the French investigators, Grand’ Eury and Renault, who successfully brought into connexion the various fragmentary remains, and made known their exact structure.
Cordaitales.—The discovery of the fossil trunks and of their rooted bases has shown that the Cordaiteae were large trees, reaching 30 metres or more in height; the lofty shaft bore a dense crown of branches, clothed with long simple leaves, spirally arranged. Fig. 30, founded on one of Grand’ Eury’s restorations, gives an idea of the habit of a tree of the genus Dorycordaites, characterized by its lanceolate acute leaves; in the typical Cordaites they were of a blunter shape, while in Poacordaites they were narrow and grass-like. The leaves as a rule far exceeded in size those of any of the Coniferae, attaining in some species a length of a metre. Of living genera, Agathis (to which the Kauri Pine of New Zealand belongs) probably comes nearest to the extinct family in habit, though at a long interval. The stem resembled that of Cycads in having a large pith, sometimes as much as 4 in. in diameter; the wood, however, was dense, and had the structure of that of an Araucarian Conifer; specimens of the wood have accordingly been commonly referred to the genus Araucarioxylon, and at one time the idea prevailed that wood of this type indicated actual affinity with Araucarieae. Other characters, however, prove that the Cordaiteae were remote from that family, and the name Araucarioxylon is best limited to wood from later horizons, where a near relationship to Araucarieae is more probable.[1] In some cases the external tissues of the Cordaitean stem are well preserved; the cortex possessed a system of hypodermal strands of fibres, comparable to those found in the Lyginodendreae. In most cases the leaf-traces passed out from the stem in pairs, as in the recent Ginkgo; dividing up further as they entered the leaf-base. In many Cordaiteae the pith was discoid, i.e. fistular and partitioned by frequent diaphragms, as in some species of Pinus and other plants at the present day. The curious, transversely-ribbed fossils known as Sternbergia or Artisia have proved to be casts of the medullary cavity of Cordaiteae; their true nature was first demonstrated by Williamson in 1850. In those stems which have been referred with certainty to the Cordaiteae there is no centripetal wood; the spiral elements are adjacent to the pith, as in a recent Conifer or Cycad; certain stems, however, are known which connect this type of structure with that of the Lyginodendreae; this, for example, is the case in the Permian genus Poroxylon, investigated by Bertrand and Renault, which in general structure has much in common with Cordaiteae, but possesses strands of primary wood, mainly centripetal, at the boundary of the pith, as in the case in Lyginodendron. Stems (Mesoxylon) intermediate in structure between Poroxylon and Cordaites have lately been discovered in the English Coal Measures. Corresponding strands of primary xylem have been observed in stems of the genus Pitys (Witham), of Lower Carboniferous age, which consisted of large trees, probably closely allied to Cordaites. There appears, in fact, so far as stem-structure is concerned, to have been no sharp break between the typical Palaeozoic Gymnosperms and pronounced Pteridosperms such as Lyginodendron.
 |
| (After Grand’ Eury, modified. Scott, Studies.) |
|
Fig. 30.—Dorycordaites. Restoration, showing roots, trunk and branches bearing long lanceolate leaves and fructifications. The trunk is shown too short. |
The long, parallel-veined leaves of the Cordaiteae, which were commonly referred to Monocotyledons before their structure or connexion with other parts of the plant was known, have been shown by Renault to have essentially the same anatomy as a single leaflet of a Cycad such as Zamia. The vascular bundles, in particular, show precisely the characteristic collateral mesarch or exarch structure which is so constant in the recent family (see Anatomy of Plants). In fact, if the foliage alone were taken into account, the Cordaiteae might be described as simple-leaved Cycads. The reproductive organs, however, show that the two groups were
- ↑ Endlicher’s name Dadoxylon is conveniently used for Palaeozoic specimens of the kind in question when nothing beyond the wood structure is known.
