100 pp. REPORT OF PROGRESS. FONTAINE & WHITE. 



long, slender and grooved on tlie upper surface ; nerves de- 

 parting liabellately from the summit of the petiole and from 

 the woody basal rim throughout its length, under a more 

 or less acute angle, all passing into the lamina, forking 

 sparingly, usually first near the point of insertion, and 

 again once or twice, the branches departing very slightly 

 from each other, and continuing to the terminal margin, 

 nearly parallel to each other, strongly marked, and not 

 closely placed ; leaf-substance rather thin, and apj)arently 

 rather easily torn into strips. 



This very interesting plant has no affinity with any fossil 

 form found in the Coal Measures, unless it be allied to Daw- 

 son's Noeggerathia dispar, "Acadian Geology," Fig. 73. 



The plant has characters in common with certain forms 

 of ferns, and also with the coniferous genus Salisburia. 

 The ferns which most resemble this plant are those forms 

 of Adiantum, which like Adiantum reniforme, L. have a 

 flabellate nervation, with a simple frond, marked by a basal 

 nerve which on each side follows the lower border some lit- 

 tle distance from the rachis, and then dissolves into branches. 

 This basal nerve however is simply a somewhat more largely 

 developed and freely branching nerve-bundle, and does not 

 differ in function from the adjoining nerve-bundles which 

 pass into the leaf. The forking of the nerves in these ferns 

 is much more frequent than in the fossil, and the nerves or 

 branches are much stronger. 



The points of resemblance to Salisburia, on the other 

 hand, possessed by the fossil, are so numerous and striking 

 that Count Saporta. who saw a figure of the specimen de- 

 picted in Fig. 1, PI. XXXVIII, was strongly inclined to 

 consider it a true Salisburia. We think however that if 

 the celebrated French palseobotanist had seen all the fig- 

 ures illustrating this genus, he would not have come to this 

 conclusion. 



The following are some of the more prominent features 

 possessed in common by our plant and by Salisburia. They 

 induce us to consider the plant as a new genus of conifers, 

 nearly allied to Salisburia. 



Both have the same rather thin leaf substance, with an 



