BERRY: A MIDDLE EOCENE GONIOPTERIS 3338 
longer because more arched proximal margin. This type of vena- 
tion is the prevailing type in the specimens collected and is shown 
in Fic. 3. 
The pinnae with the reduced marginal lobulation have an 
essentially similar venation to that just described. The laterals 
are more nearly at right angles with the midrib and the tertiaries 
number ten or eleven, alternating, rather straight pairs; those from 
adjacent laterals uniting midway between to form a ray that is 
rather straighter than in the previous case. Each ray terminates 
at a sinus and there are usually three pairs of free simple veinlets 
in each lobule, although two or four pairs may be present at times. 
In the pinnae that are deeply pinnatifid, the venation, while of 
the same general plan as in the preceding cases, varies in certain 
rather remarkable particulars which serve to distinguish the 
present form from all other previously described fossil species. 
Only one, two or three tertiaries from each adjacent lateral are 
concerned in the formation of a principal ray that runs to the sinus 
of the margin, and one or the other of these tertiaries may fork, 
the branch uniting with a branch from the next tertiary, the 
resultant subsidiary vein or ray uniting with the principal ray © 
near the sinus, the two enclosing a laterally elongated rhomboidal 
areola. The free veinlets are only from one to three terminal 
pairs; all of the other tertiaries are at least once forked at a greater 
or less distance above their base, each limb of the fork uniting with 
a corresponding fork of the next adjacent tertiary, the resulting 
ray running directly to the margin. This is the Gontopteris- 
Aspidii type of venation of Ettingshausen’s Farnkrauter der 
Jetzwelt (1865). 
The venation of this type is still farther complicated by the 
frequent presence of a very fine subsidiary branch from one or the 
other forks of a tertiary, and this fine branch runs directly to the 
margin. This type of venation is shown in Fic. 4. 
The principal intermediate type is one in which only a few of 
the forks of the tertiaries unite with their adjacent fellows from 
the adjacent tertiaries to form a ray, the majority of the tertiaries 
being simply once forked with both branches of such forks ter- 
minating in the margin. 
This handsome and characteristic species is common in the 
