The Morphology of Botryopteris Antiqua with some observations on Botryopteris Ramosa

Abstract

In this paper a complete revised description of B. antiqua is given. The plant possesses two types of stems, dorsiventral and radial, and the dorsiventral gives rise to the radial at intervals. The radial stem gives rise to roots and petioles in spiral succession. A petiole branches sympodially and produces a frond-like branch system. The morphology of the dorsiventral stem is discussed in detail and it is shown that B. ramasa also possesses a similar organ. B. antiqua is compared with the Coal Measure species and it is shown how younger species could have been evolved from it and how a triarch leaf trace was developed. A comparison is also made with the leaf impressions from the Lower Carboniferous.