FOSSIL FERNS. 
ferous strata at Burdie House, 
near Edinburgh ;* another 
elegant form, in coal-shale, is 
_ represented in Lign. 18. 
It is so rarely that the 
fructification of any species 
of Sphenopteris is preserved 
in a fossil state that I am in- 
duced to figure a leaflet of a 
remarkable plant of this genus 
from the fluvio-marine oolitic 
deposits of Scarborough. Lign. 
19 is copied from the litho- 
graph accompanying a notice 
of some rare plants from that 
SPHENOPTERIS. 133 
Lien. 19. SPHENOPTERIS NEPHRO- 
CARPA. 
Inferior Oolite, Scarborough. 
A magnified vein of aleaflet, showing the 
fructification at the extremities of 
the lobes, x two diameters. 
locality, by the eminent botanist, C. J. F. Bunbury, Esq.t 
This fossil fern closely resembles certain species of Dicksonia 
(natives of New Granada). 
Each segment of the leaflet 
or pinnate is dilated at the 
apex into a reniform indu- 
stum ; no capsules are visible, 
the fructification being, pro- 
bably, in a young state. 
In the Wealden deposits, 
both of England and Germany, 
several speciesof Sphenopteris 
abound ; one of which (oss. 
Trlg. For. 1827), often occurs 
in the calciferous grit of Til- 
gate Forest, in a beautiful 
State of preservation : a small 
ay 
Wp K\\ 
branch 18 figured m Lign. 20. Lien. 20. SPHENOPTERIS MANTELLI; nat. 
This species is characterized 
Wealden, Tilgate Forest. 
* See Dr. Hibbert’s Memoir on the Strata and Fossils of Burdie 
House. 4to, 1835. 
VOL. I. 
f Geol. Journal, vol. vii. p. 179, pl. xii. 
I 
