DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— FILICES. 51 



Sphenopteris iiig;i'ic ans, Lesqz. 



Plate II, Figs. 4-5 a. 



Sphenopteris nigricans, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 394. 



Frond polypiun.ate ; primary piunoo narrow, linear (as much as can be seen from the fragment); 

 tertiary iiinua) at a right angle of divergence from a slightly winged rachis, short, sessile, linear, 

 abruptly rounded to a small, obtuse, terminal lobe; plnnately deeply lobed; pinnules in right angle to 

 the rachis, distinct to near their base, oblong, obtuse, deeply uudulate on the borders; middle vein 

 scarcely distinct, alternately piunately divided in four to six pairs of veinlets, curving in passing to the 

 borders, forking once, except the upper pair, which is simple. 



The specimens are mere fragments ; the largest part (fig. 4) shows what 

 appears to be the middle of a pinna of second order, with alternate short divis- 

 ions two and a half centimeters long or a little more, one centimeter broad, 

 in right angle to the rachis, or very open, deeply undulate on the borders. The 

 surface was apparently covered with a coating of short hairs, as it is punctulate 

 and always colored black. I do not know any recent species of Ferns to which 

 this one is comparable ; its nervation is like that of some CyathetB. Except 

 for its deeply undulate lobes, it is like Pteris hlechnoides, Heer, Flor. Tert. 

 Helvet., p. 40, pi. xii, fig. 8. 



Habitat. — Golden and Black Butte ; always found in small fragments. 



HYMENOPHYLLUM, Klf. 



Hyiuenopliyllum confusum, Lesqz. 



Platell, Figs. 6-6a. 

 HijmcnophyUum confusum, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 395. 



Frond polypinnate; primary rachis thick, grooved; ultimate pinnte lanceolate, deltoid in outline; 

 pinnules simple or bifid, cuneiform, enlarged upward from a decurring base, lobed ; lobes short, oblong, 

 obtuse, simple, bifid or emarginate; veins dichotomous; branches simple, each entering one of the divis- 

 ions of the pinnules. 



The description is made from fragments, the species being represented 

 only by crushed parts of the frond mixed together and pressed upon another 

 in a confused mass. The largest portion discernible is the one figured. The 

 primary rachis is not represented, the fragments being too small, and irregu- 

 larly crushed ; the pinnae are apparently broadly lanceolate, divided to a dis- 

 tance from the rachis in pinnules, cuneate to their decurrent base, enlarged 

 and curved backward at the upper part, either simple and lobed or cut in two 

 divisions, as in the lower part of fig. 6. The lobes are either simple, oblong, 

 obtuse, or enlarged, and emarginate at the ujiper part into two equal, half- 

 round obtuse divisions; the veins, simple and decurrent to the rachis, at the 

 base of the pinnules are dichotomous in ascending each of the ultimate divi- 

 sions, reaching the borders of one of the lobes, as seen in fig. Qa. When looked 



