SPHENOPTERIS. 137 



I have included here, as has already been suggested by Shirley ! 

 and Johnston, 2 the very fragmentary fronds described by McCoy in 

 1847 as Sphenopteris hastata, S.flexuosa, S. germana, and S plumosa, 

 which are probably only different portions, varying somewhat in 

 details, of the same frond or of fronds of the same plant. The 

 specimen on which the species S. lobifolia was founded shows 

 narrow pinnules with four pairs of lobes, each of which is 

 supplied by a bifurcating or doubly bifurcating vein. S. germana, 

 McCoy, is almost indistinguishable from Morris's specimen. 

 S. plumosa appears to be founded on a fragment of a pinna, in 

 which the pinnules are a little larger and the lobes more numerous. 

 In S. flexuosa the lobes are few but larger and broader, while 

 in S. hastata the pinnule is only crenate and hardly lobed. All 

 these so-called species are founded on fragments of pinna?, far too 

 imperfect to obtain any idea of the variation in the form and lobing 

 which may occur on the same frond, and for the present they may 

 best be retained under one specific name. Johnston 3 has given 

 a full description of a more complete specimen from Tasmania, 

 which he terms S. Morrisiana. It would seem best, however, to 

 retain Morris's specific name as the oldest applied to this frond. 

 More recently Shirley 4 has described a fragment similar in form 

 to Morris's figured specimen, which he regards as showing the 

 fructification. It is described as occurring "in masses on the first 

 fork of the primary veins of each pinnule, there being one sorus for 

 each lobe ; and, as in Gleichtnia, their modern allies, the margins 

 of the lobes seem to have been recurved." The details of the 

 structure of the sporangia do not appear, however, to have been 

 made out, nor are the drawings given at all clear, and it would 

 therefore seem premature to insist upon its botanical affinities, or 

 to refer this frond to the recent genus Mertensia as Mr. Shirley 

 has proposed. 



Sphenopteris lobifolia is known only from the Permo-Carboniferous 

 rocks of Australasia. 



1 Shirley (02), p. 10. 



- Johnston (87-) and (94), pt. 2, p. 58. 



3 Johnston (94), pt. 2, p. 58, figs. 14, 15. 



4 Shirley (02), p. 10, pi. v. 



