280 BERRY: FERN GENUS CLATHROPTERIS 
was carefully brought back for the collections of the Johns Hopkins 
University and it is upon this fragment that the following re- 
marks are mainly based. 
The latter has maximum dimensions of about 22 X 27 cm. 
and shows a fragment of a large stipe 12 cm. long and 1 cm. in 
diameter, part of a whorl of large pinnae, and a fragment of the 
terminal part of a stipe with eight palmately arranged and mostly 
attached pinnae. Some of the marginal dentations of the pinnae 
are perfectly preserved, as is the peculiar netted venation. This 
specimen is shown in FG. 1, one half natural size. 
The genus Clathropteris was proposed by Brongniart* in 1828, 
the type being his Filicites meniscioides} from the Rhaetic beds 
of Hoer in Scania. In 1849 Brongniart{ transferred the Camp- 
topteris platyphylla of Goeppert§$ to the genus Clathropteris, and 
these two species have usually been maintained as distinct, al- 
though Nathorst states|| that after an examination of Brongniart’s 
type material of Clathropteris meniscioides he is convinced that it 
is identical with Clathropteris platyphylla. If this is true then the 
former name has priority. 
The genus has been discussed recently by Nathorst (op. cit.), 
Zeiller** and Seward7j{ so that it is unnecessary to attempt to rede- 
fine it at the present time. Seward{t{ has advocated the merging of 
Clathropteris and the allied genus Thaumatopteris Goeppert (op. cit.) 
with Dictyophyllum, but this course has fortunately not been fol- 
lowed, and Nathorst (op. cit.) has given excellent reasons why such 
a consideration would be unwarranted. The last author proposes 
that these fossil genera should be segregated from the existing 
family Dipteriaceae under the family name of Camptopteriaceae 
and on philosophical grounds it would seem that such a course 
would come nearer to representing the true status of these forms 
since the two groups are separated by the whole time interval of the 
* Brongniart, A. Prodrome, 62. 1828. 
+ Brongniart, A. Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. 4: 200. pl. rr. 1825. 
t Brongniart, A. Tableau 32. 1849. 
§ Goeppert, H.R. Gen. pl. foss. 5-6 : 120. pl. 18, 19, f. I-3. 1846. 
|| Nathorst, A.G. Kgl. eccuae Vetens. ~Akad. Handl. 41:4. 1906. 
** Zeiller, R. Flore foss. gites charbon Tonkin. Ministére trav. publ. Etudes 
gites minér. France, Atlas, 1902, texte, 1903. : 
tt Seward, A. C. Fossil Plants 2: 386. 1910. 
tt Seward, A.C. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. B, 194 : 503. 1901. 
