1 LOUA OK 'rilK SlIAS'lA FOK.MATIOX. 253 



1S94. Nihania ptcnijilii/llo'idi.'! \ ok. [mm Natli.' J: .lour. Coll. Sci. linj). Tniv. .lajuiii. 



Vol. VII, Pt. ill, p. -"-'S, pi. xxii. li.irs. s Id: pi. .\.\v, lii:- 7. 

 lN!i.") [IsilO.] Pterophiilhiin ctiUfornicuin Font . in St aiitoii : Hull. I '. S. Gcol. Stirv., 



Xo. i:«, p. 17. 



A single spociinen of ;i cycad was fouiul at locality No. 14, which 

 appears identical with the plant named Xilsorn'a j)fcrnphi/Uoi(l(.^ by 

 Yokoyania, from strata of Neoconiian age in .lai)an. The Califoniia 

 specimen, depicted in Fig. 44, is a fragment of a leaf 4.') mm. long, which 

 beai's a nmiiber of segments, some of which are entire and wliich are 

 pretty well preserved. The segments have approximately tlie same 

 shape a.s those of "^'okoyania's plant. The nerves are ahont 10 in number, 

 single and parallel. The specimen looks a good deal like a Pterophyllum, 

 as it has suffered somewhat from maceration, which has rem()\ed the 

 epidermis of tlie midril), but careful inspection shows that the leases of 

 some of the segments are still preserved and that they pass over the 

 margin of the midrib to meet in its center, as in Xilsonia. The segments 

 are not quite so uniform in width as those of the Japanese plant, some 

 being slightly wider than others, but not markedly so. The length of the 

 segments is 15 mm. and their average width is about (1 nun. The form 

 is clearly one not hitherto found in the Lower Cretaceous of North America 

 and it is so near that of Yokoyama's plant that it seems identical. Besides 

 this, the Japane.se beds have yielded a number of others identical witli 

 forms from the Lower Ci'etaceous of North America. 



and rounded. The nerves are distinct, closely placed, and in the average leaflets 8 in nvnnlxT. hut arc more 

 nuraerou.s in the wider leaflets, which may he half as wide ii<;ain as the average ones. 



" This Pterophyllum rcscmhles in some points both of the .species with which I have compared it, and ai)j)ar- 

 enlly it is a connecting link between them. Probably all three of these plants are varieties of one species. Its 

 general appearance is much like that of P. concinnum, so far as the shape and size of the leaflets go, but they 

 are somewhat wider in proportion to their length. The main difference is in the varying width of the leaflets 

 and the greater number of nerves. Heer's plant has conunonly only 4 nerves, and at most only li, and the 

 leaflets are very uniform in width. It is very near to P. lirdnijniaiii, dilfering from itonly in the shorterleatlets. 

 P. lironriniarti shows the same nervation and variability in the vvidt h of I he leaflets. The plant now in (|uestion, 

 in the form of its leaflets, looks something like Zainites iiiontdnen.iix, which I descriU'd from the ('ui'at Falls 

 flora, but is clearly (juite different from that." — L. F. W. 



"See footnote to p. 96. Profe.s.sor Fontaine in his final report identified this [jlant with that of 

 Yokoyaina, but as Yokoyama's name was preoccvipied that of I'rofe.ssor Fontaine becomes the name of the 

 species. Though published the same year it must have antedated Yokoyama's name by several months, but 

 as Diller and Stanton did not pulili.sh Professor Fontaine's description, which they had before them, his name 

 would have had to give way to Yokoyama's if that had not been preoccupied. As it is, Fontaine's name may 

 remain, and as he now refers the plant tcj the genus Nil-sonia, the aliovc coudjination is virtually his. L. F. W. 



