WEICHSELIA. ily 
and not by Mantell. These authors recognized the impossibility of 
determining botanical affinity in the absence of fructification, and 
placed the Wealden specimens in Brongniart’s artificial genus 
Pecopteris. The figures of Stokes and Webb are reproduced in 
Mantell’s ‘‘Tllustrations of the Geology of Sussex,” and, in addition, 
there is represented in pl. i. fig. 4 what may be part of a pinna of 
the same species. There are two figures with the same number; 
one of these is a leaf of Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, Sw., but the 
other is not mentioned in the text, and may be Wetchselia Muntelli. 
In Brongniart’s ‘‘ Histoire,’! there is a figure of a French 
specimen from Beauvais much larger than the fragments pre- 
viously figured from the English Wealden. Brongniart draws 
attention to certain differences between the Wealden form of 
Lonchopteris and the Carboniferous species of the same genus. 
Lindley and Hutton’s figure shows a pinna from near Wansford, 
Northamptonshire, with a length of 6} inches; no venation is 
shown. In speaking of this species in the ‘‘ Wonders of Geology,” 
Mantell notes its occurrence in Sweden.? 
In the figure of Pecopteris Murchisoniana given by Auerbach 
and Frears the pinne are represented rather more at right 
angles to the main rachis than is the case in the English specimen 
figured in Pl. X. Fig. 8. In 1857 Stiehler described more fully the 
large specimens of fronds which he had previously referred to 
Brongniart’s genus Anomopteris, and, recognizing several points of 
divergence from that type of fern, he instituted the new generic 
term Weichselia. 
The fragments figured by Ettingshausen as Alethopteris recentior 
are small portions of pinne; the pinnules show very indistinct 
venation, but it is described as consisting of simple lateral veins 
at right angles to the midrib; if this be so, the inclusion of 
A. recentior in the synonomy of Weichselia Mantelli is incorrect. 
Schenk, from an examination of better material, considers that 
Ettingshausen’s fragments must be referred to Lonchopteris, and 
admits a difficulty in separating them from the specimens figured 
by Brongniart and others as Lonchopteris Mantelli. I prefer to 
follow Nathorst’s example and consider Ettingshausen’s species 
synonymous with Weichselia Mantelli. 
1 Pl. exxxi. figs. 5 and da. 
2 Wonders of Geology, vol. i. 1839, p. 371. 
