Identifier: evolutionofplant00scot (find matches)
Title: Evolution of plants
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Scott, Dukinfield Henry
Subjects: Plants--Evolution.
Publisher: New York: H. Holt and company (etc., etc.
Contributing Library: University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries with support from LYRASIS and the Sloan Foundation

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1905. We will not, however,follow historically the stages of reconstruction,but will briefly give the results as they nowstand. Lyginodendron oldhamium, a plant of theLower and Middle Coal Measures, has beendescribed as a little Tree-fern in habit; thestem was long and slender, seldom reaching twoinches in diameter. It is possible that it maynot have been upright, and that it supporteditself with the help of stronger neighbours; thepresence of spines all over the stem and leaves,like those on the climbing fronds of the WestIndian Bramble Fern (Davallia aculeata), hassuggested this idea; on the other hand thereare small upright Tree-ferns, such as a Fijianspecies of Todea, with which the fossil plantmight also be compared. In many specimensthe stem was freely branched, but it is doubtfulwhether this was always the case; indeed it isquite possible that several distinct species maybe grouped under the collective name Lyginoden-dron oldhamium. The foliage consisted of very large and beau-
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7?. £. Fig. 12.—Lyginodendron oldhamium. Restoration, showingstem and roots, with the foliage; to the left above is a malefrond. Observe the contemporary Dragon-fly. (a) Seedsin cupules, studded with glands, and borne on a branchedstalk; (6) part of male frond showing discs and pollen-sacs,(a) and (6) slightly magnified. From drawings by Mrs. D.H. Scott. 106 THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS tiful, much divided fronds, like those of somefinely cut Asplenium or Davallia, but with themain stalk forked, a characteristic feature (seefig. 12). These great fronds were arrangedspirally on the stem. Their external featureswere well known for many years before the stemwhich bore them was discovered. The littleleaflets were rather thick, and curved in at theedges, characters which (together with the in-ternal structure) suggest that the plant greweither in dry places or, as is much more probable,in a salt swamp. The stem gave rise to a numberof roots, which seem to have been aerial in theirupper part,

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