SELLARDS: PERMIAN PLANTS. 5 



more nearly at right angles to the rachis. The two species are 

 usually easily separated on these characters, but between the larger 

 fronds of T. coriacca and the smaller of T. newberriana as repre- 

 sented in the Kansas Permian, the dividing line is sometimes by 

 no means clear. 



The species may be compared in venation to T. jejunata Grand' 

 Eury, but this latter species is described as having a pinnate 

 frond, of which the ultimate pinnae have a somewhat cordate base. 

 T. newberriana has a simple frond gradually reduced to a petiolate 

 base, as shown both by the Virginia and Kansas specimens. 

 Professor Potoni^, Die Flora des Rothliegenden von Thuringen, 

 p. 145, includes in the synonomy of T. jejunata, "Z". newberriana 

 Font, and White ex parte" and cites plate XXXIV, figures 9, 9a, 

 of the Permian Flora, but the figures referred to are not of 

 T. newberriana, but of T. lescuriana F. and I. C. W. 



The horizon from which the types of F. newberriana were de- 

 scribed have been variously regarded as Permian and Permo- 

 Carboniferous. Professors Fontaine and White in their treatment 

 of the flora argue strongly for its Permian age. 



Taeniopteris sp. Plate I, Fig. 14. 



I figure here the apical part of a frond which is, probably, differ- 

 ent from either of the other species. The venation has much the 

 same character as that of T. coriacea, but the frond is evidently 

 much larger. On the other hand the veins are very much more 

 oblique than those of T. newberriana. The veins are thin and 

 close, and the dots between the veins small and numerous. 



Interneural Bodies on the Fronds of Taeniopteris. 



The interneural bodies referred to in the introduction occur on 

 some specimens of each species and variety of Taeniopteris in the 

 collection. They are small, oval, resistant bodies, situated be- 

 tween the veins, half immersed in the epidermis of the frond, 

 nearly globular in shape, some smooth on top, but more often 

 showing a slit across the top or side very suggestive of the slit for 

 the discharge of spores in many eusporangiate ferns. The slit, 

 apparently, has no regular position on the bodies; it is sometimes 

 across the top, sometimes on the side, sometimes parallel to the 

 direction of the veins, or again transverse to the veins. The 

 bodies, when removed from the epidermis leave a cup-shaped 

 cavity. In many of the cavities there is a cast of the slit, indicat- 

 ing that many of the bodies had the break turned down, and 

 doubtless many of those appearing smooth on top are slit below* 



