BOULAYATHECA, THE NEW NAME FOR THE SEED FERN POLLEN ORGAN BOULAYA CARPENTIER

Abstract

In 1914 Carpentier described microsporangiate organs from the Houiller du Nord of France under the binomial Whittleseya (?) fertilis, a name which had earlier been used by Kidston (1914) for specimens collected from the Staffordshire Coal Fields near Dudley, England. Several years later (1925) Carpentier re-evaluated the specimens and assigned them to a new genus, Boulaya. However, it is not clear by his reference as to which specimens were transferred to Boulaya. In addition the generic name Boulaya was not used in combination with a specific epithet. In 1933, Halle attempted to rectify the problem and proposed that the specimens previously designated Whittleseya (?) fertilis Kidston be renamed Boulayafertilis. Since that time the generic name Boulaya has been used for simple pyriform pollen organs of Westphalian age measuring up to 1.7 cm and consisting of several, elongate sporangia arranged in a ring. Because of the nature of the preservation (impression-compression), and the absence of sufficient morphological characters with which to define the taxon, there has been some discussion as to whether Boulaya is different from other simple pteridosperm pollen organs (e.g., Millay and Taylor, 1979). However, in a recent contribution the ultrastructure of Monoletes pollen extracted from Boulaya fertilis was compared with grains from morphologically similar pollen organs (e.g., Aulacotheca, Halletheca, Schopfitheca). In this paper we provided additional evidence that the pollen organ Boulaya is a distinct taxon (Kurmann and Taylor, 1984). It has recently been brought to our attention that Boulaya Carpentier (1925) is a later homonym of Boulaya Cardot (1912), a generic name applied to a moss included in the Leskeaceae. According to Article 64.1 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (1983) the generic name Boulaya Carpentier (1925) must be rejected as being illegitimate (Stafleu, 1983). We therefore propose that the name of the pteridosperm pollen organ be changed from Boulaya to Boulayatheca. The generic and specific diagnoses used by Halle (1933) remain the same.