1039 



of the Carboniferous Period, with a restoration of Sphenopteris ele- 

 gans,' by Hugh Miller, Esq., was read. 



. The author began his paper by quoting from Mr. Banbury's descrip- 

 tion of a fossil fern of the North-American coal measures, published 

 in the 'Journal of the Geological Society' for 1852. "It is rare," 

 says Mr. B., " to find in the ferns of the carboniferous period, even 

 the stipes or leaf- stalk completely preserved down to its base ; the 

 only specimen of the kind that I have seen is a beautiful Sphenopteris 

 (I believe Sphenopteris elegans) from the Edinburgh coal-field, in the 

 collection of Mr. Hugh Miller." What is deemed rare by Mr. Bun- 

 bury, one of our highest authorities in fossil botany, must be regarded 

 as absolutely so ; and Mr. M. now exhibited, he said, and attempted 

 to describe, this unique fossil, in the hope of adding a very little to 

 what was already known regarding one of the most beautiful and cha- 

 racteristic ferns of the lower coal measures. From a suite of speci- 

 men's on the Society's table, it would be found that, save in one 

 particular, the entire frond of Sphenopteris elegans could be restored, 

 so as to be rendered as palpable to conception as the fronds of the 

 green brake, which in one respect it resembled, that flourished last 

 season on the sunny hill-sides or amid the deep woodland glades of 

 our country. In one important particular, however, the restoration 

 must be incomplete. So far as Mr. M. knew, no specimen of any 

 coal-measure species of this ancient genus exhibits the fructification ; 

 and we must be content, therefore, to acquaint ourselves simply with 

 the general outline and venation of the plant. All previous attempted 

 restorations of Sphenopteris had been unfortunate. It seems to hav^e 

 been inferred, from the minuteness of the pinnules, that the frond to 

 which they belonged had also been minute ; and so in the restorations, 

 such as that of the late Dr. Mantell, in his ' Wonders of Geology,' 

 and that of the interesting oil painting of carboniferous plants in the 

 Museum attached to the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, — restorations 

 introduced, however, rather for pictorial than scientific purposes, — 

 the large, eminently handsome, and apparently solitary frond given to 

 the plant by Nature, has been represented by mere dwarfish pinnae, 

 rising gregariously, as in Polypodium and Asplenium, from a common 

 rhizoma. In one important respect Sphenopteris elegans resembled 

 Pteris aquilina, our common hill-side bracken. It was furnished with 

 a stout leafless rachis, exceedingly similar in form to that of Pteris. 

 Nay, it exhibited so completely, in Mr. JVI.'s specimen, the same club- 

 like slightly bent termination, the same gradual diminution in thick- 

 ness, and the same smooth surface, that one accustomed to see this 



