germs Noggerathia to Living Plants. 103 



that the examination on the spot of several vegetable impressions 

 upon the schists and sandstones from the coal-mines of France, 

 and the transmission of important collections made in these mines 

 by the superintending engineers, have made me acquainted with 

 several new species of this genus. Several beautiful specimens, 

 and the examination of a large number of fragments, have con- 

 vinced me that most of these species were much larger than 

 those at present known, especially the species first described by 

 M. Sternberg. Generally we merely find isolated leaflets of the 

 large pinnate leaves of these plants ; and even more frequently 

 fragments only of these leaflets, which require to be recon- 

 structed at the localities by joining the different portions con- 

 tained in the slabs. 



We thus find that the true Noggerathice have pinnate leaves 

 with more or less expanded cuneiform leaflets, which are some- 

 times fan-shaped, at others almost linear, truncated or rounded 

 like a spatula at the summit, frequently cleft into straight or 

 linear, truncated or rounded lobes. These leaflets generally ter- 

 minate obliquely at the summit, which indicates, even when they 

 are isolated, that they are leaflets of a pinnate leaf and not 

 simple leaves. Their most important character consists in the 

 arrangement of the nerves. These all arise from the tolerably 

 large base of the leaflet ; they are perfectly equal in size, hence 

 the leaflets do not present any median nerve, nor any predomi- 

 nating secondary nerves; arising from the base of the leaflet, 

 they are parallel to each other, or slightly divergent, according to 

 the more or less expanded form of these leaflets; they either remain 

 simple or bifurcate by an insensible duplication, and not by a 

 decided bifurcation as in the Ferns. Hence it results that these 

 nerves are slightly stronger towards the base, more slender to- 

 wards the centr-e or the extremities of the leaflets, but all uniform, 

 and thus reach the truncated -or rounded extremity of the 

 leaflets. Such are the structural characters of these leaves, which 

 may assist us in appreciating their relations to the leaves of living 

 plants. 



It is evident that the relations established between the Nog- 

 gerathice and the Palms are badly founded ; for in all the palms 

 which have cuneiform truncated leaflets [Caryota, Harina, Mai'- 

 tinezia, &c.), as in those having linear or lanceolate leaflets, there 

 is a more marked median nei-ve, then some more slender secondary 

 nerves, and finally some very delicate nerves between these; 

 hence the nerves are very unequal, and the median nerve espe- 

 cially is nearly always very distinct. 



In the ferns with pinnate leaves, the leaflets of which slightly 

 approach those of Noggerathia in form, the nerves also arise from 

 a very distinct median nerve, at least towards the base ; more- 



