POSITION AND RELATION OF MEOxALOPTEROID GROUP. 127 



In the absence of fruiting it may therefore justly seem inexpedient to 

 many to refer pre-Keuper tseniopteroid species to genera like Angiop- 

 teridium or Danseopsis, founded on or implying a known direct relation- 

 ship to a certain marattiaceous genus. It is for this reason that, as stated 

 above, I have preferred the use of Tssniopteris as a generic name devoid 

 of all implication of an antecedent relation of a species to any particular 

 genus. 



The probable relationship of the Carboniferous Tssniopteris to the Meso- 

 zoic Marattiacess has been well expressed by Professor Zeiller, 1 while that 

 of the Mesozdic types of the genus has been ably discussed by Zigno,' 2 

 Saporta 3 and others, nearly all of whom ally them directly with the liv- 

 ing genera. The occurrence of pinnate tseniopterids, such as Tssniopteris 

 jejunata, Grand Eury, and T. carnoti, Zeill., in the Carboniferous and Per- 

 mian of France; T. coriacea and T.fallax, Goepp., in the Permian of Bo- 

 hemia; T. eckardi, Germ., in the Permian of Tyrol, and the Danseopsis 

 Rajmahalehsis, Feist., in the Trias of India, the last two of which were 

 regarded by Schimper 4 as agreeing entirely with the Keuper Danseopsis, 

 completes the continuity of the discovered pinnate tseniopteroid forms 

 from the Subcarboniferous types to the Keuper, and may be considered 

 as belonging to a not improbable genetic series passing from the alethop- 

 teroicl megalopterids of the Lower Carboniferous — perhaps from the 

 genus Megalopteris itself— to fruiting forms, in the late Trias, of the living 

 genera Angiopteris, Marattia and Dansea. 



The relationship of the simple-leaved species of Tssniopteris to those 

 with pinnate fronds is somewhat uncertain, though it does not seem im- 

 probable that all came from the same stock, it is not impossible that 

 the species of the type T. multinervis, Weiss., or T. smithsii, Lesq., as well 

 as the genus Lesleya, 5 may have come from the megalopterid type through 

 an early variation. M. Zeiller. who has discovered forms referred by him 

 to the latter genus in the Upper Carboniferous and Permian of France," 

 associates it with Ta niopteris, and indeed the obliquity sometimes seen in 

 the nerves of Tssniopteris,' 1 as well as the distinctly tseniopteroid aspect 

 of Lesleya, gives strong support to this view. The descent of the two 



1. "Aucune des Teniopteridees du terrain houiller n'arencore ete rencontree 6 Petat fertile; raais 

 quelques-unes d'entre elles presentent d'assez etroites affinites avec eertaines Teniopteridees sec- 

 ondares reconnues anjourd'hui eomme tres voisines au morns des genres Angiopteris, Marattia, on 

 Dancea, pour qn'on soitfonde a croire qu'elles doivent, elles aussi, appartenir aux Marattiaees." Fl. 

 foss. bassin perm. Autun et Epinae, p. 160. 



2. Fl. foss. oolit., vol. i. 



3. Pal. franc., veg. Jurass., vol. i. 



4. In Zittel: Traite, II, p. 86. 



5. Lesquereux, Coal Flora, I, p. II::, Atlas, pi. xxv, figs. 1-::. 



6. Fl. foss. bassin Autun Epinae, p. 166. See pi. xii, fig. 2; and Fl. foss. Commentry, pt. 1, p. 285, 

 pi. xxiii, fig- 6. 



7. See T. multinervis, op. cit., pi. xiii, fig. 1. 



XIX -Bull. Geol. Soc. Am, Vol 4. 1892 



