FOSSIL PLANTS. 381 



common rachis, as Goppert describes, our Neuropteris hirsuta is certainly not 

 identical with it. For this very common and polymorphous spfecies of ours, 

 whose frond is sometimes 5 feet long, and at least tripinnate, and generally bears 

 compound tertiary alternate pinna? or pinnules formed of a large oblong or 

 lanceolate obtuse leaflet, cordiform at base, having on each side, and attached 

 to the base of its slightly elongated pedicel, a small round or veniform pinnule, 

 which is as different in its form as in its nervation from the main middle leaf- 

 let. This one has generally a well marked, sometimes thick medial nerve, 

 from which the veins go out, anastomosing and curving to the borders ; while 

 the veins of the small basilar leaflets all come out of an enlarged or circular 

 base, without trace of a medial nerve. These leaflets are, therefore, true Ne- 

 phropteris, while the main pinnule is a Neuropteris. We have obtained from 

 various parts of our Coal Measures, where this species is the most abundant of 

 all, numerous specimens which all show the same characters. The pinnae de- 

 crease in size to the point, and the two upper leaflets under the terminal pin- 

 nule are .simple or do not bear at the base the small round pinnules; all the 

 others are compound. This terminal pinnule is large, round oval, obtuse and 

 entire. On the other side, Prof. F. A. Rremer has published in the Paleonto- 

 graphia (1860) p. 186, PI. 29, fig. 4, a leaf which he considers identical with 

 Neuropteris corddta, Brgt., though he calls it Dictyopteris cordata. It resem- 

 bles one large leaflet of Neuropteris hirsuta by its form, and by the straight 

 pointed hairs with which its surface is marked. But in the leaf figured by the 

 German author, the veins and veinlets are undulate, and in curving and anas- 

 tomosing, they pass from one to the other, forming a kind of reticulation, like 

 that which characterizes the genus Dictyopteris. As this peculiar mode of 

 reticulation is not remarked in our species, we have to consider it as different 

 from Neuropteris cordata, Brgt. 



NEUROPTERIS FASCICULATA, Sp. nov. 



PI. v, fig. 1 to 4. 



FROND pinnately divided, bearing alternate ovate lanceolate 

 pointed leaflets, variable in size, irregularly rounded or auri- 

 culate at the base, being more extended on one side than on 

 the other, or truncate on one side, and rounded on the other. 

 Medial nerve distinct, and comparatively broad, either de- 

 scending to the point of the leaflets, or disappearing at or be- 

 low the middle, sometimes absent ; veinlets thin, close to each 

 other, scarcely distinct, arched, forking in ascending. 



