Abstract
Foliar cuticles are described for the first time from the Carboniferous trigonocarpalen pteridosperms Neuropteris obliqua (Brongniart) Zeiller, Laveineopteris loshii (Brongniart) Cleal, Shute and Zodrow and Neuralethopteris schlehanii (Stur) Laveine. N. obliqua has differentiated costal and intercostal epidermal cells on the adaxial surface, and papillate stomata and multicellular trichomes on the abaxial surface; all these features help confirm the position of this species within Neuropteris. L. loshii has a more uniform pattern of epidermal cells on the adaxial surface, while on the abaxial cuticle virtually no epidermal structure is preserved other than the stomata; the cuticles of this species are strikingly similar to those described previously for L. tenuifolia (Sternberg) Cleal et al. and L. rarinervis (Bunbury) Cleal et al. N. schlehanii has an unsual type of paracytic stomata structure, previously unknown in the trigonocarpaleans; it is the first species of this form-genus for which evidence of the epidermal structure has been determined.
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