1.

Hyeniales
Hyenia and Calamophyton is the earliest known representatives of the
Sphenopsida. in that year Ananiev discovered the remains of a most interesting
plant in Lower Devonian rocks of western Siberia. This he named Protohyenia.
Although lacking some of the features which. represent an early ancestor of the
group. From a creeping axis, erect branches arose at. intervals, bearing either
sterile or fertile appendages in rather indefinite whorls. branches, they probably
functioned as leaves. The fertile appendages were very similar, but. terminated in
sporangia. These were unUke those of almost all other members of the.
Sphenopsida, in that they were not reflexed. bearing roots and erect aerial stems
up to 30 cm high, some sterile and others fertile. or as stems performing the
functions of leaves. sporangiophores, which were similar to the 'leaves', except
that two segments. were reflexed and usually terminated in two sporangia each.
closely the other Middle Devonian genus Calamophyton. (Fig. 15B) is taken
from an early description^^ which emphasizes the articulate nature of the. aerial
axes, a feature which used to be regarded as essential in defining the genus. other
species, e.g. bicephalum, are not so clearly articulated and it has been suggested.
of C. 15C and 15D) were very similar to those of Hyenia, the chief. twelve
sporangia, instead of three or four, as in the latter. characteristic of later
sphenopsids. Little is known of the internal anatomy of the Hyeniales,.
2. Sphenophyllales
Remains of stems as well as of leaves being referred to the genus
Sphenophyllum. usually in multiples of three at each node spite of secondary
thickening, for they seldom exceeded i cm in diameter. the ground, or must have
depended on other plants for support. they probably looked rather hke a Galium
('Bedstraw'). primary wood, with the protoxylems at the three corners in an
exarch position. canal, but in the Upper Carboniferous species this rarely
happened. then later extending all round. However, the wood opposite the
protoxylems was composed. characteristic and which is recognizable at a glance
in transverse sections primary wood consisted entirely of tracheids (i.e. and they
bore multiseriate bordered pits on their lateral walls. Between the tracheids, there
were wood rays. were interrupted in plurifoliatum where they were represented
only by a group of parenchyma cells in the angles between adjacent tracheids.
thickness of cork on the outside, formed from a deep-seated phellogen. were
entire and deltoid yet all received a single vascular bundle, which. dichotomized
very regularly within the lamina and in these the deeply cleft leaves were usually
near the base, the basis of their general similarity. A number of other genera of
cones are also referred to. the Sphenophyllales, but on less secure grounds.
complex cones in the whole plant kingdom. One of the earUest to appear in the
fossil record. Eviostachya, described by Leclercq, from the Upper Devonian of
Belgi um. Above this were whorls of sporangiophores, six in each whorl and
branched in a very characteristic way bearing a total of twenty-seven sporangia
in a reflexed position. Sphenophyllales, but there were no bracts between them.
bifurcated tips. The arrangement of the vascular supply to these appendages is.
bracts subtending them. This has led some morphologists to suggest a more
comphcated. Three fertile leaflets and three sterile leaflets. Sphenophyllum
fertile, = Bowmanites fertilis) from the Upper Carboniferous. also a complex
cone. appendages (possibly homologous with one bifid bract). a *mop' of
branches, about sixteen in number, each bearing two reflexed sporangia. primary
wood in the axis. Sphenophyllostachys { = Bowmanites) Dawsoni, on the other.
hand, is known to have been borne on stems like those of Sphenophyllum
plurifoliatum. near the base, but with free distal portions. In the axils of these
bracts, and fused with them. to a certain extent In one form (forma a) each.
sporangiophore had three branches arranged in a very characteristic way.
terminating in a single reflexed sporangium. In another form (forma y), there
were six. branches. Sphenophyllostachys { = Bowmanites) Roemeri was similar
in its organization to S. sporangia In recent years, a number of relatively simple
cones have been. described, which are nevertheless beheved to belong to the
Sphenophyllales. iowensis the sporangia were borne singly on a short
unbranched stalk. simplification. While the vast majority of the Sphenophyllales
were homosporous, at least.