CARBONIFEROUS. 67 



Cheilatithites linearis. 



Goppert, Syst. Fil. Foss. p. 232, pi. xvi. (excl. ref. Sternb.). 

 Staphylopteris (?) Peachii. 



Peach, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxiv. p. 131, pi. viii. 

 Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb. vol. xiii. p. 46. 



Sphenopteris frigida. 



Heer (in part), Foss. Flora Spitzbergens, pi. i. fig. 2. 



lis. 



Heer (in part), Foss. Flora Spitzbergens, p. 8, pi. i. figs. 11-27 (pi. ii. 

 figs. 7-10 ?). 



Remarks. The plant figured by Brongniart as Sphenopteris linearis is 

 certainly not Sternberg's* feni of that name. The specimen that has served 

 as the type of Sternberg's S. linearis is so imperfect, that from any evidence 

 afforded by the figure it is very improbable we shall ever know what his 

 fern really is. 



Feistmantelf gives a figure of what he believes to be Sternberg's plant, 

 which, from the little that can be learnt from Sternberg's figure, agrees with 

 it pretty well ; but Feistmantel's fern may be only one of the many forms of 

 Eremopteris artemisicefolia. 



One thing, however, is clear, whatever Scernberg's species may be, that 

 figured under the same name by Brongniart is an altogether different plant. 

 On the other hand, the plant figured by Brongniart as S. linearis is the same 

 as that figured by Lindley and Hutton as >$'. ajfinis. This fern is extremely 

 common in the Calciferous Sandstone Series of Scotland, and I have examined 

 a great many beautiful examples from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 



The size of the pinnules varies considerably, from even smaller than those 

 shown on the figure given by Lindley and Hutton to the size of those figured 

 by Brongniart. These forms merge into each other by insensible gradations, 

 so the identity of S. linearis, Brongt., and S. affinis, L. and H., is undoubted ; 

 hence I have placed the former as a synonym of the latter. 



The fruit of S. affinis has been described by Mr. C. W. Peach under the 

 name of Staphylopteris Peachii, Balf. and Eth. Jr., and a Note on a specimen 

 showing the so-called Staphylopteris Peachii attached to S. affinis formed 

 the subject of a communication to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (Trans. 

 vol. xii. p. 187). 



The main axis of this fern dichotomises and the pinnse are borne on the 

 two forks of the dichotomy. This species, in so far as the barren frond is 

 concerned, agrees with Stur's Diplothmema, but its fruit removes it from this 

 too comprehensive genus, and places it in his Calt/mmatotheca. 



On a specimen in the Collection from the Calciferous Sandstone Series of 

 the Island of Arran, Firth of Clyde, the fronds are shown to spring from a 

 caudex. The specimen is, unfortunately, in a very imperfect state of 

 preservation. 



I have examined the specimen from which the plate of Lindley and 

 Button's & linearis was drawn. J Their plant is not the S. linearis, Brongt., 

 but a very fine specimen of the upper portion of a frond of their Sphenopteris 

 crassa.% The drawing is not a good representation of the fossil, which is 

 preserved in the " Hutton Collection " at Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Splienopteris frigida, Heer (1. c. pi. i. fig. 2), and Sphenopteris flexilis of the 

 same author (1. c. pi. i. figs. 11-27), I believe to be merely fragments of 

 /S'. affinis. 



The small specimen of fruit, which I identified as Staphylopteris Peachii, 



* Sternberg, Vers. ii. p. 15, pi. xlii. fig. 4. 

 t Palseontographica, vol. xxiii. pi. Ixv. fig. 1. 

 1 Foss. Flora, vol. iii. p. ccxxx. 



Kidston in Proc. Royal Phys. Soc. Ediiib. vol. rii. p. 238. 



F 2 



