04 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 



Some specimens belonging to the Tseniopteroid group of ferns are 

 of especial interest as showing what is, so far as I have been able to 

 learn, a new type of fructification among ferns. The fronds are all 

 simple, linear, 10 to 20 or more cm. long, strongly petiolate, and 

 have a TiBniopteroid venation. Two species are represented by both 

 sterile and fertile fronds. The sporangia, oval or slightly elongate, 

 are situated on the back of the frond, midway between the veins, ajD- 

 parently sessile, half immersed in the coaly epidermis of the frond. 

 When removed from the frond, their position is marked by a cu^d- 

 shaped depression. The sporangia on one species are about three- 

 fourths mm. apart, five or six between each two veins. On the other 

 species they are closer, about one-half mm. apart, sixteen to eighteen 

 between each two veins. On many of the sporangia a transverse slit 

 is seen across the top or slightly to one side, very similar to the slit 

 for the discharge of spores on many living ferns of the eusporangiate 

 type. 



A very remarkable group of herbaceous ferns occur abundantly in 

 the collection. They are all small plants, 10 to 30 cm. high, with 

 pinnatifid or simply pinnate fronds. They comprise three species, and 

 by their form are referable to the family Alethopteridepe. They prob- 

 ably should be referred to a new genus. 



Other genera present, so far as determined, are Neuropteris, Odon- 

 topteris, Pecopteris, Sphenoyteris, Sphenop>hylluin, and a fragment 

 of leaf belonging to the Cordaites group. 



The geological range of Callipteris conferta has an interesting 

 bearing on the question of the age of the upjoermost paleozoic rocks 

 of Kansas. The species is characteristic of the middle and lower 

 Rothliegenden of Europe, but has not been found above the middle 

 of the Permian. It has also been found in the Permo-carboniferous 

 of West Virginia. The occurrence of this species near the top of the 

 Kansas strata together with Sphenophyllum, a genus that has not 

 been discovered above the middle of the Permian, makes it improba- 

 ble that the Kansas beds are younger than middle Permian. While, 

 on the other hand, the presence of Callipteris, a Permian genus, and 

 the number and variety of plants belonging to the Ta?niopteroid 

 group, as well as the general character of the flora, tends to confirm 

 the Permian age of the Kansas Upper Paleozoic. 



The author is at present, and has been for some time, working on 

 the collection, and hopes in the near future to have more definite re- 

 sults and more satisfactory information in regard to this interesting 

 flora. 



