BY F. RATTE, ING. DES ARTS ET MANUF., PARIS. 1081 



odontopteroides var. obtusifolia, Sagenopterls salisburoides, and 

 Rhacophyllum coriaceuni, which can be seen in the Museum. 



CYCADOPTERIS (?) SCOLOPENDRINA, n. sp. 



(Plate XVI. fig. 5.) 



The other fern represented resembles the genus Cycadopteris, 

 JZigno (1), and also Lomatopteris, Schimper (2), to which this last 

 author, (according to Saporta) has wrongly referred some true 

 Cycadopteris. 



In both genera the frond is thick, and the pinnules are not 

 deeply incised, their confluence taking place at a distance from the 

 rachis ; and also in both genera the pinnules are thickened by a 

 border, the true nature of which, as distinguishing the two genera 

 from each other, it is difficult to understand from a fossil in which 

 the characters have been obliterated by pressure, but which is com- 

 pared by Zigno to that in Myriopter's {Cheilanthece). 



There is also a great difference in the mode of venation, which 

 in Lomatopteris is reduced to a single principal vein in each 

 pinnule, while in Cycadopteris there is a secondary nervation. 



Our fossil also resembles some species of Odontopteris, and some 

 of Pecopteris from which it is distinguished by the thick border. 



As this fossil is represented in the Museum by only a single 

 specimen, I could not spare much of it for an examination of the 

 hidden under-surface in order to ascertain whether there were 

 secondary veins or not, which would place it as Cycadopteris in the 

 first, or Lomatopteris in the second case. This examination failed 

 to distinctly prove the presence of a secondary nervation, although 

 the fragmentary appearance of the frond would make it difficult to 

 ascertain it beyond doubt. In one of the pieces examined, the 

 principal vein of the pinnule was distinct enough, and no vein was 

 seen to spring from it. But as I have said above, the fleshy 

 frond is entirely transformed into coal, which is much fractured 

 into geometrical fragments as shown in fig. 7 ; and it would be 



(1) Saporta, l.c , p. 417. Schimper, I.e., I. p. 47*2. 



(2) Saporta, I.e., p. 391. Schimper, I.e., p. 472. 



