WEICHSELIA. 117 



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 ''Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex," and, in addition, 

 there is represented in pi. 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 Tunhridgense, Sw., but the 

 other is not mentioned in the text, and may be Weichselia Mantelli. 



In Brongniart's " Histoire," l 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. 2 



In the figure of Pecopteris Murchisoniana given by Auerbach 

 and Frears the pinnae are represented rather more at right 

 angles to the main rachis than is the case in the English specimen 

 figured in PI. X. Fig. 3. 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 pinnaB; 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 PI. cxxxi. figs. 5 and 5a. 



2 Wonders of Geology, vol. i. 1839, p. 371. 



