NO. 8.] 



DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 



Sphenopteris (Adiantites) sp. d. 

 PI. I. figs. 5, 6 and (magnified) 47, 48. 



Of this species three specimens are here represented, the one (wood-cut 

 fig. 1) I only received after the plates were printed. As is seen from the 

 drawings, the leaves are constructed as in the Adiantwm, the oblique wedge- 

 shaped leaflets being devoid of any distinct midrib and attached to the rachis 

 by their posterior part. The anterior margin is more or less uneven. The 

 figures will speak for themselves. 



The species is probably new, in so far as can 

 be judged from this incomplete material. Of the spe- 

 cies previously described, it somewhat resembles Adi- 

 antites Nympharum Heer from Bureja in Amur, 

 (Flora foss. arctica, vol. 4), the pinnules of which 

 are however considerably larger. 



Newton and Teall * have described two specimens 

 from Cape Flora, bringing them under Thyrsopteris, 



. . , , though at the same time they draw attention to their 

 Fig. 1. Sphenopiwis (Adi- 



antites) sp. d. in natu- similarity to Adiantites amurensis Heer. It seems 



ral size and two pin- 



nules magnified. * me "^ ^ e "keness to Adiantites Nympharum 

 is still greater, indeed, it may not be altogether impossible that they belong 

 to this species. Whether the form described above should be considered as 

 an earlier stage of development of the species described by Newton and Teall 

 cannot be determined from the material at hand. 



1 'Notes on a collection of Rocks and Fossils from Franz Josef Land', etc. Quarterly 

 Journ Geol. Soc. vol. 53, p. 477. 



