On the Sporangium-like Organs of Glossopteris Browniana , Brongn

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Abstract
I. I ntroduction . G lossopteris is now among the most familiar of all fossil plants. The tongue-shaped fronds of this genus, with their reticulate lateral nervation, are exceedingly charactcristic of the Permo-Carboniferous rocks of India, Australasia, and Southern Africa, and occur also in the Permian of Russia, and in beds of Rhætic age in Tongking and China. So great is the abundance of these fern-like leaves in the Lower Gondwana Series of India, and its homotaxial equivalents in the Southern Hemisphere, that this plant has given its name to the flora of that former continental region. Although a very large number of Glossopteris -fronds have been described by different authors, it is only within the last few years that we have learnt, anything as to the general habit of this plant. We are chiefly indebted to the researches of Prof. Zeiller, of Paris, for progress in this respect. It has now been ascertained that this plant was heterophyllous,—a fact which was first suggested by M'Coy in 1847. In addition to the larger and often tongue-shaped fronds, much smaller leaves, generally spoken of as scale-fronds, were borne on a rhizome-like stem, which has been long known under the name of Vertebraria . The nervation of the scale-fronds resembles that of the larger leaves, except that there is no midrib. In shape they are, as a rule, ovately triangular, pointed at the apex, and strongly concave. An average specimen measures one and a half centimetres or more in length. Up to the present time we are without any definite

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