igoi] White — The Genus Whittleseya. 105 



"Whittleseya Dawsoniana, n. sp. 

 PI. VII, Fig-s. 4, 4rt. 



Leaf very small, short, squarrose, broader than long-, truncate 

 at the apex, round-truncate at the base, thick ; nerve bands very 

 broad, 1.5 mm. -1.75 mm. in width, about 10 or 12 in number, 

 parallel to the lateral borders, apparently undivided, and forming- 

 very broad and very low flat costae which are contiguous or 

 slightly confluent in the interior of the leaf, each band terminating 

 in a short, broad, tooth. 



While examining one of the specimens from St. John, N.B., 

 labelled by Sir William Dawson as Neiiropteris Selivyni, loaned 

 from the collections of McGill University throug-h the courtesy of 

 Prof. D. P, Penhallow, the writer observed on the same fragment 

 of shale a small portion of a leaf showing vascular bands similar 

 to those of Whittleseya. On carefully removing the matrix from 

 the remaining portion of the fossil, the specimen was found not 

 only to belong to Whittleseya, but to represent a new species of 

 that genus This leaf, which is illustrated in PI. VII, Fig. 4, is 

 about 13 mm. long above the petiole, and about 17 mm. in width 

 at the top, which is slightly wider than the lower portion. The 

 specimen, which is slightly deformed and a little crumpled at the 

 base so as not to reveal the petiole, is well marked by the very 

 low, broad, and flat ribs, whose terminations in the apparently 

 short, obtuse teeth, are very obscurely seen along a portion of the 

 distal border. The characters of the teeth are hardly positively 

 determined. 



The species is named in memory of Sir William Dawson, 

 Canada's most disting-uished palaeobotanist and one of the great 

 palaeontologists of the world. It is recognized among- other 

 broad-leaved species of the genus by its small size, relatively great 

 breadth and proportionately very broad bands. Further, the teeth 

 along the distal margin appear to be shorter and more obtuse than 

 in Whittleseya ele^a?is, while the form of the leaf is not elongate 

 as in W. undulata, whose teeth are also short. 



The species described above is associated on the same shale 

 fragment with Alethopteris and a ha.gmQn\. oi Neuropteris {XaheWed 

 Neiiropteris Sekvyni) apparently indistinguishable from a plant 



