382 PALAEONTOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



This species, by the divisions of the leaves, presents a truly peculiar appear- 

 ance, which floes not compare with any previously known fossil plants, except 

 perhaps with some of the abnormal forms of Neuropteris hirsuta. It is evi- 

 dently distinct from this last species, as shown by its smooth (not hairy) sur- 

 face, its thinner texture, its more closely approached veinlets; by the pointed 

 form and the peculiar division of the leaflets, which are generally united three 

 together, and by a subdivision of the main rachis. In the specimen repre- 

 sented by fig. 3, the large leaflet has a well marked medial nerve, while the 

 small ones have no trace of it. The specimen represented by fig. 4 is creased 

 in the middle, but the secondary nerves come out from the broad, round base, 

 as in the genus Cydopteris. I consider it as one of the leaflets attached to a 

 round, perhaps climbing stem, while the others represent the top leaves I 

 have only seen of this species the four specimens figured here. Figs. 2 and 3 

 are from the bottom clay of the upper coal bed of Neelyville, Morgan Co. ; the 

 two others in concretions from Mazon creek, Grundy Co. 



NEUROPTERIS COLLINSII, Sp. nov. 



PI. v, fig. 5 and 6. 



THE mode of division of this species is still unknown, as it 

 has been found as yet only in separate leaflets. These leaflets 

 are large, from two to three inches long, one and a-half to two 

 inches wide, either oval in outline or oblong ovate, and smooth. 

 The veins and veinlets are thin and distinct, inflated near the 

 base, emerging from an oblique or horizontal truncate broad 

 base, many times forking in ascending, and but slightly arched. 

 The leaflets have no trace of a medial nerve, and could not, 

 therefore, be referable to the genus NepJiropteris, Brgt 



But as it has been seen to be the case with species of this genus, other leaf- 

 lets, taken from different parts of the same plant, may have another kind of 

 nervation. Our species is related to Neuropteris ingens, Lind & Hutt., Foss. 

 Flora, vol. 2, PI. 9 la, by the form and size of the leaflets, but it differs by the 

 mode of division of the veins, which do not radiate from one common point, 

 but ascend in slightly curving lines to the borders from an enlarged base, 

 where they become parallel, resembling, in that manner, the nervation of an 

 Odontopteris. In our species also, the veins, though inflated near the base, are 

 not as distinct as in the English species, which is compared to Neuropteris au- 



