234 DR. A. C, SEWARD: 
of the genus, Ancimia ( Troehopteris) elegans, bears a rosette of small spathu- 
late leaves with sporangia on the under side of the lower portion of the 
fronds. 
From the Triassic-Rheetic floras there are fewer records of this family than 
of the Dipteris-Matonia Ferns. One of the oldest examples has recently been 
described by Gothan under the generic name Norimbergia from Rheetic beds 
in the neighbourhood of Nürnberg : the characteristic sporairgia are clearly 
preserved, Fossil pinnæ bearing sporangia identical with those of existing 
species are recorded from Jurassic rocks of England, Sardinia, Afghanistan, 
Korea, and elsewhere: the majority of the fossil forms are included in the 
genus Alukia, which has bi-pinnate or tri-pinnate fronds with small linear 
pinnules differing in habit from all living members of the family. Alukia 
occurs also in Wealden rocks: the discovery of fertile specimens in Peru 
points to the probability that sterile fronds described as a species of the 
provisional genus Cladophlebis from Wealden beds in England and other 
parts of the world may belong to Alukia. Another type of Schizwaceous fern 
characteristic of Lower Cretaceous floras is Rugordia Gæpperti, recorded from 
England and Germany and other districts in Europe. This fern has recently 
been deseribed in detail by Halle from fertile specimens discovered in 
presumably Wealden strata in Russian Manchuria. Ruffordia closely 
resembles in habit some recent species of Aneimia. Under the name Schize- 
opsis Mr. Berry has described fertile specimens of fronds from the Potomac 
Formation of Virginia which in habit bear a very close resemblance to species 
of Schizea, e. g. S. elegans, with a lamina deeply dissected into narrow strap- 
shaped segments. This discovery is of special interest, as it suggests the 
probability that some of the leaves from other Lower Cretaceous or Jurassic 
floras which it has been customary to refer to the genus Buiera, a member 
of the Ginkgoales, may be sterile fronds of ferns closely allied to Schizea. 
It is, for example, not improbable that some of the specimens from Jurassic 
rocks in Siberia described by Heer as species of Baiera, but which are 
slightly different from the typical representatives of that genus, may be 
Schizæaceous ferns. 
Various leaf fragments from Tertiary beds have been included in the 
genus Lygodium, and there is no doubt that this genus was a member of some 
of the European floras of that period. 
The Carboniferous genus Senftenbergia is often quoted as a Paleozoic 
member of the Schizæaceæ because of the presence on the small fertile linear 
pinnules of sporangia with an apical annulus composed of 4 to 5 rows of 
thick-walled cells, but in view of differences of opinion on its affinity and 
having regard to our lack of knowledge of the morphological features of the 
plant to which the fronds belonged, it would be rash to assume a direct 
relationship of this Paleozoic genus to the existing genera of the 
Schizæaceæ, 
