108 



SPHENOPTEBIS. 



another type of Sphenopteris, it may not be unfitting to adopt the 

 new specific designation S. Fittoni. Bunker refers to Fitton's 

 description of S. gracilis under the head of S. Mantelli, Brong. ; * 

 Schenk, 2 Heer, 3 and Carruthers 4 fallow Bunker's example in 

 regarding S. gracilis as a synonym of S. Mantelli. Schimper 5 

 also includes Fitton's species under S. Mantelli, and Ettings- 

 hausen 6 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. Mantelli. 



One of the two species of ferns Asplenium palceopteris, Ung., 

 mentioned in the introduction as described by Unger from New 

 Zealand, comes exceedingly near S. Fittoni. The resemblance is 

 especially striking in the case of Unger's pi. i. fig. 4; 7 the other 

 figures are enlarged and, to some extent, restored drawings. The 

 species is compared by its author to Sphenopteris tenera, Bunker, 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 Ftttoni, 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. Fittoni 

 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 



1 Wealdenbildung, p. 3. 



2 Palaeontographica, vol. xix. p. 209. 

 Secc. Trab. Geol. Portugal, 1881, p. 12. 

 Geol. Sussex, 1878, p. 282. 



Trait, pal. veg. vol. iii. p. 469. 



Abh. k.-k. geol. Reichs. vol. i. Abth. iii. No. 2, p. 24. 



Reise Fregatte Novara. 



