genus Noggerathia to Living Planis. 108 
that the examination on the spot of several vegetable impressions 
upon the schists and sandstones from the coal-mines of France, 
and the transmission of important collections made in these mines 
by the superintending engineers, have made me acquainted with 
several new species of this genus. Several beautiful specimens, 
and the examination of a large number of fragments, have con- 
vinced me that most of these species were much larger than 
those at present known, especially the species first described by 
M. Sternberg. Generally we merely find isolated leaflets of the 
large pinnate leaves of these plants; and even more frequently 
fragments only of these leaflets, which require to. be recon- 
structed at the localitiés by joining the different portions con- 
tained in the slabs. 
We thus find that the true Noggerathie have pinnate leaves 
with more or less expanded cuneiform leaflets, which are some- 
times fan-shaped, at others almost linear, truncated or rounded 
like a spatula at the summit, frequently cleft into straight or 
linear, truncated or rounded lobes. These leaflets generally ter- 
minate obliquely at the summit, which indicates, even when they 
are isolated, that they are leaflets of a pinnate leaf and not 
simple leaves. Their most important character consists in the 
arrangement of the nerves. These all arise from the tolerably 
large base of the leaflet; they are perfectly equal in size, hence 
the leaflets do not present any median nerve, nor any predomi- 
nating secondary nerves; arising from the base of the leaflet, 
they are parallel to each other, or slightly divergent, according to 
the more or less expanded form of these leaflets; they either remain 
simple or bifureate by an insensible duplication, and not by a 
decided bifurcation as in the Ferns. Hence it results that these 
nerves are slightly stronger towards the base, more slender to- 
wards the centre or the extremities of the leaflets, but all uniform, 
and thus reach the truncated or rounded extremity of the 
leaflets. Such are the structural characters of these leaves, which 
aed assist us in appreciating their relations to the leaves of living 
plants. 
It is evident that the relations established between the Nog- 
gerathie and the Palms are badly founded ; for in all the palms 
which have cuneiform truncated leaflets (Caryota, Harina, Mar- 
tinezia, &c.), as in those having linear or lanceolate leaflets, there 
is a more marked median nerve, then some more slender secondary 
nerves, and finally some very delicate nerves between these ; 
hence the nerves are very unequal, and the median nerve espe- 
cially is nearly always very distinct. 
In the ferns with pinnate leaves, the leaflets of which slightly 
approach those of Noggerathia in form, the nerves also arise from 
a very distinct median nerve, at least towards the base; more- 
