WHiTE.J NOTES ON CHARACTERISTIC SPECIES. 879 



Sphknopteris asplenioides Sternb. 



It is much to be ivgretted that a consistent observance of the law of 

 priority in nomenchiture appears to necessitate the use of Sj)/ienoj->feris 

 asj)lenioides Sternberg in place of the more familiar name SpTienopteris 

 ILvn'uujliauxi Brongn., under which the former name is inscribed by 

 most authors as a S3'non3aii. 



Although the species seems, in the Southern Anthracite iield, to lie 

 very rare in the zone of Lykens coals Nos, 2 and 3, its more common 

 occurrence being in the roof shales of Lykens coal No, 4, in the Lower 

 Lykens division, it has generally a wide range in the thick sections of 

 the Potts ville in the Southern Appalachian region. In the Clark for- 

 matitm, below which it does not yet seem to have been found, the fern 

 is represented by a form with small, compact, round-lobed pinnules 

 and verv narrow pinnte, close to if not identical with ><j_>hen<ypteris dlck- 

 soiuouh'S Stur, with which it was identified by Professor Lesquereux. 

 In the Quinnimont formation the species l^ecomes developed in its 

 typical form, the plant being abundant and of large size. Above this 

 stage of the Pottsville, in the Sewanee zone, or the Sewell formation, 

 which, as we have seen, is essentially contemporaneous with the flora 

 of the zone of the Lykens coals* Nos. 2 and 3, this species is found 

 in a more robust phase, with elongated lobes of the pinnules, often 

 resembling Sphenopteris elegam^ to which it seems to bear a genetic 

 relation. From this large, cuneate-lobed form, in the upper part of 

 the Sewell formation, the species seems to have very rapidly waned, 

 so that, in the overlying Fayette formation in the Virginia region, it 

 is but Aery rarely met, and then in a depauperate condition. The 

 fructification on the lobes of the typical form of Sp]ieii<>p>teris aspleni- 

 oides is probably referable to the genus Renaultia. As such it may be 

 regarded as generically identical with Sp)henopteris inlerocarpa liX., 

 which it resembles in its punctate rachis and the mode of the develop- 

 ment of its pinnules. 



In the Southern Anthracite field this species is found chieflv in the 

 horizon of th(> roof shales of Lykens coal No. 4, at East Brookside, 

 and the Lincobi collieries. Examples of a very small form are present 

 in the roof shales of Lykens coal No. 5 at Williamstown and Big Lick, 

 while the normal form is present in the Pottsville Gap. 



Sphenopteris dadeana sp. nov. 



The specimens which will eventually be described as Sphenopteru 

 dadeana comprise several of the types which were included by Les- 

 quereux iiiHler the wAme Sphenopdei'ls Gravenhorstii \?iv. ft Brongn. 

 They dillVi- From the examples figured under the above name' by the 



1 Coal Flora, Vol. Ill, pi. ci, figs. 1, 1% V>, p. 763. 



