288 Contributions towards Establishing 7he General Character 



vol. v., and in the " Annals of Natural History," for April 1841, pro- 

 posed the genus Ptilophyllnm for some fossil plants which Colonel Grant 

 had brought from Cutch, which genus it was proposed should embrace 

 the fossils named Zamitcs, by Brongniart. In the " Annals," Mr Morris 

 observes, that " this name ought to be restricted to those fossils agreeing 

 more closely with the recent genus." On this point I fully agree with 

 him ; but, as the same fossils which he refers to had been already named 

 Otopteris, they cannot, on any account, be placed in PtilophifUum. It 

 remains to be decided, whether or not the Cutch fossils can be retained 

 in this genus. 



The genus Otopteris, it has already been remarked, includes Cyclopteris 

 Beanii (L. and H.), Zamitcs Bechci (Br.), and Cycadites latifolius (Ph.) In 

 the plate in which Professor Phillips represents the latter, there are 

 figured other two fossils, which, if they are not varieties of the same 

 species, evidently belong to the same genus. In addition to these, there 

 are other two species which Mr Bean of Scarborough has named Otopteris 

 araphica, and O, lam-eolata ; specimens of which this gentleman has oblig- 

 ingly added to my cabinet. Otopteris (/raphica appears at first sight 

 to be a varietj^ (with the leaflets more elongated) of 0. Bechei ; but, 

 on a closer examination, it is seen that the veins of the former are finer 

 and more numerous, judging from a specimen, apparently of the latter 

 species, in the Newcastle Museum, and procured at Cloughton Wyke, 

 on the Yorkshire coast. Otopteris lanceolata is evidently a more developed 

 form of Sternberg's Polypodiolithes j>ectmiformis {Zamia pectinata, Brong.) 

 I am supported in this view by several specimens at present before me, 

 which it is utterly impossible to divide into two genera, or even into two 

 species, so variable are the leaflets in their mode of attachment to the 

 rachis, and in their form. 



In his " Prodrome," Brongniart instituted the genus Nilssonia for some 

 plants, which he describes as having the leaflets adhering to the rachis 

 by their entire base, and traversed with parallel veins, some of which 

 are more strongly marked than others. The fossil which Phillips figures 

 under the name of Cycadites pectinoides,^ appears to answer to this 

 character. I speak, not only from the enlarged figure which is given of 

 one of its leaflets, but from an examination of a specimen lent me in the 

 kindest manner by Mr W. K. Loftus of Caius College, Cambridge, and 

 which exhibits portions of two or three fronds, clearly of the same species, 

 under forms altogether different. In one form, that is, where the 

 leaflets are large, they are attached to the rachis by their entire base, 

 which is even dilated a little beyond the superior and the inferior 

 margin of the leaflet; in the first character this fossil agrees with 

 Nilssonia hrevis : where the leaflets are smaller, the superior part of the 

 bases appears to be free, and slightly auriculated ; in this form the 

 specimen agrees with Palteozamia pecteni : and at the termination of 

 the frond, the leaflets are constricted at their base, somewhat as in 

 Zamia lanceolata\. I do not say that Cycadites pectinoides, and the two 

 last-mentioned fossils, are different parts of the frond of one species ; 

 but, notwithstanding their leaflet bases exhibiting such a marked differ- 

 ence in each, I am certainly disposed to look upon them as belonging 

 to the same genus, from the circumstances of their agreeing in having 

 the leaflets furnished with strong veins, rather wide apart, and with 

 apparently smaller ones intervening the latter. 



As respects the veins being of different sizes in Nilssonia — is it perfectly 



« " Geology of the Yorkshire Coast," pi. 10, fie;. 4. t Vide Plate V., fitr. 8. 

 I " Fossil Flora," pi. 194. *' 



