Fossil Floras of Cape Colonij. 17 



rock, ill wliich this fevn is very abundant, contains also numerous 

 fragments of Tamiopteris fronds and pieces of stems or probably 

 broad rachises. 



Otlicr Specimens : 173d, several imperfect portions of pinnsB and 

 pinnules, also a piece of what is probably a broad rachis or petiole : 

 with fragments of Tcenioptaris. 178d, 179d, 18od, 357c, smaller pin- 

 nules slightly larger than 1 cm., 368c smaller pinnules with clearly 

 marked venation, A. 



Genus SPHENOPTEKIS Brongniart. 



Sphenoptekis fittoni Sew. 



Plate II., figs. 7, 8. 



1836. Sphoioptcyls gracilis Fitton, Trans. Geol. Soc, vol. iv., ser. ii., 



pt. ii., p. 103. 

 1849. Pacliijpteris gracilis Brongniart, Tableau, p. 107. 

 1852. Pacliijpteris gracilis Ettingshausen, Abb. k.-k. Geol. Reichs., 



vol. i., Abth. iii., No. 2, p. 21. 

 1864. Asplenium palcBopteris linger, Reise Fregatte Novara, vol. i., 



Abth. ii., p. 3, pi. i., fig. 4. 

 1893. ? Spheiioptcris delgadoi Saporta, Eev. Gen. Bot., vol. v., 1893, 



p. 270, pi. iv., fig. 5, 



Frond ovate lanceolate, bipinnate, possibly becoming tripinnate in 

 the lower part ; pinnae linear acuminate, alternate, springing at a 

 wide angle from the rachis ; pinnules ovate acuminate with entire 

 margins passing gradually into more or less deeply Jobed segments 

 obliquely attached to the axis of the pinna on which their lower 

 margin is decurrent. Venation of the SpJienoptcridis type. 



The specimen on which this species is founded was described in 

 1827 by Fitton from the English Wealden rocks as Sphenopteris 

 gracilis/'' but before his paper was published by the Geological 

 Society of London the specific name gracilis had been applied to a 

 Carboniferous example of Sphenopteris. Fitton's type-specimen, 

 now in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London, 

 is clearly identical with examples more recently found by the late 

 Mr. Rufford on the Sussex coast near Hastings, and I have little 

 doubt that this English fern, so far as characters based on sterile 



* Fitton (.36). 

 



