414 PALAEONTOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



HYMENOPHYLLITES INFLATUS, Sp. nov. 



PI. xvi, fig. 6. 



A tripinnately divided part of a frond, with primary divi- 

 sions broadly oval in outline pinnately cut into alternate ob- 

 ovate obtuse inflated lobes, either simple or parted again in 

 short obtuse divisions; nervation obsolete, the veins appar- 

 ently branching in each division of the leaves, and simple. 



This species is intermediate between the two sections of HymenopTiyllites, 

 having the mode and regularity of division of the first, the thick inflated leaflets 

 without distinct nervation, like some species of the second. It is distantly re- 

 lated to Sphenopteris Rutsefolia, Gutb., Verst., p. 42, pi. x, fig. 10 and 11, from 

 which it differs by the form of its more elongated, narrow, inflated pinnules, 

 by the obsolete nervation, etc. 



From the roof shales of the main coal, Duquoin. 



The specimen is a large piece of shale covered with fragments of the plant, 

 none larger than the one figured. 



2. APHLEBIA. 

 HYMENOPHYLLITES ADNASCENS, LI. and Hutt. 



The two specimens figured, pi. xvi, fig. 7 and 8, from the roof shales of the 

 coal at Morris, exactly represent the species of Lindley, as it is figured and de- 

 scribed by Geinitz, in his Versteinerungen, p. 20, pi. xxv, fig. 7 to 9. But I 

 cannot recognize an identity between the plants represented in these figures. The 

 one, fig. 8, of ours, has the lower divisions short lanceolate obtuse, irregular 

 in their directions, with thin parallel veinlets, and the upper ones narrower, 

 curved, marked also by thin parallel veins branching into each lobe ; while 

 the other, fig. 7, has dichotomous or forking, linear, narrow branches, without 

 trace of veins or veinlets. The first of these forms agrees with the description 

 and figures given by Lindley, vol. 2, p. 58, pi. C and CI, who compares the 

 plant to some Lygodium, or Hymenophyllum, but I am disposed to consider the 

 other as a peculiar species. Our fragments are nevertheless too small to allow 

 a precise and satisfactory description. Prof. Lindley considers his species as 

 a climbing fern, twisted round the stem of a frond of Sphenopteris crenata, to 



