CHAPTER XXVII.
GENERA OF PTERIDOSPERMS, FERNS, AND PLANTAE INCERTAE SEDIS.
The genera and species described in this Chapter are founded on sterile leaves or portions of leaves, and in the great majority of cases the reproductive organs are either imperfectly known or have still to be discovered. Some of the genera, the smaller number, are no doubt true ferns, while most of them may safely be regarded as plants which will ultimately be shown to belong to some other group, in most cases that of the Pteridosperms. It is possible that a few of the types may be members of the Cycadophyta rather than of the Pteridospermeae, but evidence as to systematic position is for the most part of a negative kind or too incomplete to lead to any definite expression of opinion as to the cycadean or pteridosperm nature of the imperfectly known Palaeozoic or Mesozoic species. Many of the genera are of little botanical interest, though even the most problematical are of importance as criteria of geological age. Genera which there is good reason for including in the Pteridosperms are dealt with in this section, in order that the Chapter in Volume III. devoted to this important group may be limited to more completely known types.
In most text-books it is customary to employ family names for sterile fern-like fronds which possess similar venation features or have in common certain vegetative characters, the value of which it is impossible to estimate. In the following account family or group names are not adopted, on the ground that such slight utility as they may have is more than counterbalanced by the risk attending a grouping under one name of plants which may agree only in unessential characters. The practice of classifying fossil plants has been carried to excess. Grouping together genera as a matter of convenience unavoidably creates a prejudice in favour of actual relationship, which may or may not exist.