BY THE REV. J. E. TENIS0N-W00DS, F.G.S., F.L.S. 131 



Ord. Ophioglossace^e. 



Herbaceous Ferns. Fronds springing from a subterraneous 

 rhizome, erect, biform, binate. Sporangia sessile, unilocular or 

 sub-bilocular, exannulate, coriaceous, united to each other and 

 bivalvate. 



In this order, but amongst the plants about whose true position 

 there is much uncertainty, Schimper places the following genus. 



Jeanpaulia. Unger. 



Fronds coriaceous, arising from a cplindrical stem, flabelli- 

 form, segments, which are linear, forking repeatedly, entire, more 

 or less elongate. Veins numerous rather prominent, equal, 

 parallel, dichotomous with the divisions of the frond. Superior 

 epidermis formed of elongate rectangular or oblique cells. 

 Lower side of hexagonal cells with an undulating margin, and 

 numerous stomata. Fruit ovate-pisiform. 



These plants have been placed by Braun, Unger and Brongniart 

 amongst the Rhizocarps near Marsiliaceae. By Schenk they were 

 classed as Ferns by the side of Baiera and Hausmannia. Lindley 

 and Hutton doubtfully placed them among Alga?, adding : — " We 

 place it amongst Solenites rather more for the sake of giving the 

 plant a station and a name, than because we have any reason for 

 considering it of the same nature, further than its similarity of 

 appearance."* Schimper adds that having collected abundance of 

 specimens from a schistose sandstone, with plenty of what he 

 considered to be the fruits, he was able to identify them with 

 certain fossils of a similar nature from the Oolitic beds of Whitby. 



There are two species described, one from the Rhsetic beds of 

 Europe near Bayreuth, Bamberg, Erlangen and Schnaitach and 

 Forchheim, in Franconia. The other (which has much narrower 

 segments) from the Oolite of Scarborough. Schimper thinks that 

 Sj)henopteris longi/o/ia, Phillipsf is the same species as that found 

 in Franconia, Jeanpaulia milnsteriana. 



* Fossil Flora. Vol. 3, plate and page 209. 

 f Geology of Yorkshire, plate 7, tig. 17. 



