98 CONIOPTEUIS. 



Genus CONIOPTERIS, Brongniart. 

 [Tableau foss. veg. p. 26, 1849.] 



1. Coniopteris hymenophylloid.es (Brongniart). 



2. Coniopteris quinqueloba (Phillips). 



3. Coniopteris arguta (Lindley & Hutton). 



Brongniart made use of this generic name for such fossil fern 

 fronds as show characters more or less intermediate between 

 Pecopteris and Sphenopteris, and agree with the recent Dicksoniese 

 in the form of the sori. Saporta adopted this term and, like 

 Brongniart, he quotes Tympanophora of Lindley & Hutton as the 

 type of a fertile pinna of the genus Coniopteris. The following 

 definition is given by Saporta of Brongniart's genus : 



" Le genre Coniopteris ainsi constitue comprend des especes 

 a pinnules steriles, plus ou moins retrecies a la base, lobees, 

 denticulees sur les bords et pourvues d'une nervation pinnee ; 

 les fructifications, en forme de clou, de rein ou de coin, plus ou 

 moins elargies au sommet, sont disposees vers I'extremit6 des 

 nervures secondaires qu'elles terminent ; le limbe contracte a disparu 

 en tout ou en partie, et la pinnule, dans les portions fertiles des 

 frondes, le trouve presque reduite aux seules mesures elargies 

 en clou et servant de support aux sores. Ces organes disposes en 

 forme de receptacle, de texture evidemment coriace, sont generale- 

 ment ranges deux par deux de chaque cote de la mediane." l 



Solms - Laubach, 2 in referring to the Jurassic fern originally 

 named by Brongniart Pecopteris Murray ana, and by some other 

 authors included in the recent genus Thyrsopteris, advocates the 

 retention of the generic designation Coniopteris in preference to 

 a term implying identity with a recent genus. There is little doubt 

 that the Jurassic fern described in this Catalogue as Coniopteris 

 hymenophylloides is very closely allied to some recent species of 

 Dicksonia as well as to the monotypic genus Thyrsopteris; but 

 rather than make use of such terms as Dick&onites or Thyrsopteris, 

 it is a safer plan to retain the genus Coniopteris and definitely 

 include the species among the Cyatheaceae. Schimper also applies 



1 Saporta (73), p. 287. 



2 Solms-Laubach (91), p. 157. 



