The reproductive bodies of the great Lepidodendra are
sometimes more like seeds than spores, while both the wood and
the leaves of the Sigillaria have features which properly belong
to the Phanerogam. In another group (called the Sphenophyllales)
the characters of these giant Club-mosses are blended with the
characters of the giant Horsetails, and there is ground to think
that the three groups have descended from an earlier common
ancestor.
Further, it is now believed that a large part of what were
believed to be Conifers, suddenly entering from the unknown, are
not Conifers at all, but Cordaites. The Cordaites is a very
remarkable combination of features that are otherwise scattered
among the Cryptogams, Cycads, and Conifers. On the other hand, a
very large part of what the geologist had hitherto called "Ferns"
have turned out to be seed-bearing plants, half Cycad and half
Fern. Numbers of specimens of this interesting group--the
Cycadofilices (cycad-ferns) or Pteridosperms (seed-ferns)--have
been beautifully restored by our botanists.* They have afforded a
new and very plausible ancestor for the higher trees which come
on the scene toward the close of the Coal-forests, while their
fern-like characters dispose botanists to think that they and the
Ferns may be traced to a common ancestor.
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