108 SPHENOPTERIS. 
another type of Sphenopteris, it may not be unfitting to adopt the 
new specific designation S. Fitton?. Dunker refers to Fitton’s 
description of S. gracilis under the head of S. Mantelli, Brong. ; * 
Schenk,? Heer,? and Carruthers‘ follow Dunker’s example in 
regarding S. gracilis as a synonym of S. Mantelli. Schimper ° 
also includes Fitton’s species under S. Mantelli, and Ettings- 
hausen® mentions Pachypteris gracilis under S. Mantelli. 
In the Rufford Collection there are a few specimens, which will 
be described more fully below, closely corresponding with Fitton’s 
figure, and which demonstrate by their more perfect form the 
correctness of his opinion that the Tunbridge Wells fern is really 
a different species from Brongniart’s type, S. Dantelli. 
One of the two species of ferns Asplenium paleopteris, Ung., 
mentioned in the introduction as described by Unger from New 
Zealand, comes exceedingly near S. Mittont. The resemblance is 
especially striking in the case of Unger’s pl. 1. fig. 4;’ the other 
figures are enlarged and, to some extent, restored drawings. The 
species is compared by its author to Sphenopteris tenera, Dunker, a 
form now referred to Onychiopsis Mantelli (Brong). It is difficult 
to understand on what grounds this New Zealand species was 
named Asplenium, as no trace of fructification appears to have been 
found. Possibly it is somewhat rash to absorb Unger’s species into 
one so far separated from it geographically, but the close agree- 
ment between the two forms must be advanced in justification of 
this step. 
The specific name palaopteris has, of course, the priority as 
compared with that of /:¢étonz, but the fragments on which Unger 
founded his species were exceedingly small and imperfect, and far 
inferior to the specimens from which the definition of S. Fittont 
has been constructed. An additional reason for the adoption of 
the latter name is the fact that Fitton was the first to describe and 
figure the type specimen, which he called S. gracilis, which term 
Wealdenbildung, p. 3. 
Paleontographica, vol. xix. p. 209. 
Secc. Trab. Geol. Portugal, 1881, p. 12. 
Geol. Sussex, 1878, p. 282. 
Trait. pal. vég. vol. iii. p. 469. 
Abh, k.-k. geol. Reichs. vol. i. Abth. iii. No. 2, p. 24. 
Reise Fregatte Novara. 
~_ ao oa - ao 0 - 
