100 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



somewhat ragged border. The rather thin leaf has about 20 vascular 

 bands, some of which fork near the base; these bands are somewhat 

 raised, with lower spaces between, and all are marked with fine longi- 

 tudinal striae. 



Length, 14 mm. Width, 23 mm. 



Horizo7i and Locality. Lower Cordaite Shale, Fern Ledges, St. 

 St. John, N.B. Collected by W. J. Wilson. This form may possibly 

 be a coalescing of three leaves of the ordinary form, each with about 

 seven vascular bundles, but the vascular bands all converge to one broad 

 base, and there is no proof of the overlap of one leaf on another. 



Except for the width and the thinner leaf, this form is closely re- 

 lated to the preceding, especially if it be regarded as three leaves placed 

 side by side. 



Whittleseya concinna var. arcta n. v. Plate VI, Fig. 11. 



This form is proportionately narrower than the type, the bands of 

 fibres in the leaf are proportionately wider, and the fine longitudinal 

 lines are just visible to the naked eye. It shows a similar transverse 

 cracking of the skin across the ridges made by the fine longitudinal 

 lines, as in the two preceding. There are traces of a few spines at the 

 upper end of the leaf, of which the longest may be accidental. 



Length (exclusive of the spines), 16 mm. Width, 8 mm. 



Horizon and Locality. Lower Cordaite Shale, Fern Ledges, St. 

 John Co., N.B. 



The raised bands are more pronounced in this form than in the 

 two preceding. 



I have referred these fossils to Whittleseya on account of their 

 general form and parallel bands of vascular tissue, but I strongly sus- 

 pect they are fruits or fruit capsules rather than leaves, the type (con- 

 cinna) is seen to be shninken in the shale like the succulent fruits called 

 Sarcocarpus; while the bright surface and much cracked epidermis, 

 would indicate the presence of a tough skin like many of the fruits of 

 this flora. If these forms be compared with the capsule which Mr. Kid- 

 ston has figured as the seed vessel of Neuropteris heterophylla Bg't ^ it 

 will be seen that there is a strong general resemblance between them, in 

 outline and surface markings at least. There is, however, no indication 

 that the forms from the Little Eiver group are seed receptacles of 

 Neuropteris polymorpha Dn., which in this ancient flora represents the 

 Carboniferous species that Mr. Kidston quotes: for while the fronds of 

 N. polymorpha are extremely abundant, the AYliittleseyas are quite rare. 



1 Philosophical Trans. Roy. Soc, London. 



