[PENHALLOW ] OSMUNDITES SKIDEGATENSIS 11 
probably much in excess of the real breadth of the original structure. 
This may possibly be explained by a separation of the pinnules under 
the influence of decay and pressure, or it may represent the confluent 
bases of the pinnules, which have disappeared. Unfortunately, the 
alteration of structure in these fragments has been carried to an 
extreme limit. Of the fourteen pinnules represented, three are mere 
impressions faintly defined. The others are impressions together with 
a very slight amount of carbonaceous matter, but in all cases all evi- 
dence of venation has been completely obliterated. It is, therefore, 
quite impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy what fern 
these casts represent. Nevertheless, a close comparison serves to show 
a certain resemblance to the fronds of Osmunda, and particularly to 
those of O. Claytoniana. Unfortunately, no final conclusions can be 
based upon these fragments of fronds, although there seems some 
ground for the belief that they may represent the foliage of the stems 
associated with them, and this may be adopted as a provisional view. 
If this should eventually prove to be a correct interpretation of their 
character, then they would prove that the fronds of the fossil were 
fully twice as large as those belonging to the modern Osmunda 
Claytoniana. 
OSMUNDA. 
The entire external aspect of the fossil stems served to suggest their 
relation to the modern Osmundas, and upon close comparison with O. 
regalis as the most readily available species, it was found that not only 
in the various external characters, but also in the internal structure and 
arrangement of parts, the characteristics already described for the fossil, 
are very clearly duplicated. Upon subsequently looking up the litera- 
ture of the subject, I was much interested to note that O. regalis was the 
one species which had at various times been selected by previous investi- 
gators as the basis of comparison. 
For purposes of comparison, several characteristic rhizomes of O. 
regalis were gathered. These were found to occupy a horizontal position 
in growth, the upper extremity in the region of the terminal bud being 
somewhat ascending, and the stipes all turned into a vertical position. 
The rhizomes branch dichotomously, the whole spreading over an area of 
considerable extent. Each branch at its base is of minimum size, enlarg- 
ing upward until a certain length has been attained, when the diameter 
becomes nearly uniform. Thus in one of the most characteristic of the 
rhizomes (Plate V., fig. 9) the total length was 23 em., while the greatest 
breadth was 5 cm., this diameter being reached from a narrow base 
j 1 Carruthers, Quart. Jrnl. Geol. Soc., XXV., 349, 1870. Goeprert, Die, Foss. 
Flora der perm. Form., XII., 1864-65, 

