308 



FOSSIL FLORA 



Sphenopteris flabellata (Tate). Fig. 3. 



Frond bipinnate ? ; pinnule horizontal, petiolate, flabellate, deeply 

 cut into three radiating segments ; segments cut more or less deeply 

 into linear, obtuse lobes, the lowermost having seven, the middle 

 four, and the uppermost eight lobes ; veins radiating, one broad vein 

 passing into each lobe. 



This species belongs, we have no doubt, to the group of Spheno- 

 pteridse with linear and uninerved lobes, which ought to be separated 

 from the others under a distinct genus : although the characters of 

 our species have been taken from a single pinnule attached to the 

 rachis, we find them quite distinct from those of any described 

 species. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 3. Sphenopteris flabellata. 

 Locality. Budle, in shale. 



Genus Filicites (Brongn.). 



Brongniart instituted this genus to include fronds, or portions of 

 fronds, which could not be referred to any other genus. Stems of 

 Tree Ferns with oval scars have been placed under Caulopteris ; 

 these have not yet been observed in our district, but two stems, with- 

 out leaves and unmarked by scars, are too remarkable to be passed 

 over, and, as they seem portions of Ferns, we record them provision- 

 ally under the genus Filicites, 



Filicites striata (Tate). Plate XIII. fig. I. 



This is a portion of a stem 4 inches long and 1 inch broad ; a 

 broken branch remains, which proceeds horizontally from the stem; 

 the stem is striated longitudinally, the strise being parallel and 

 nearly equal, and curving into the branch, chiefly from that part of 

 the stem which is below it. The cuticle must have been very thin. 



