50 PP. REPORT OF PROGRESS. FONTAINE & WHITE. 



The delicate thread-like branches, on leaving the lateral 

 nerve, rise somewhat towards the surface of the parenchy- 

 ma of the leaf, and unite with the adjoining lateral nerve, 

 on the upper side of it, thus giving the^ nervation of the 

 plant a peculiar aspect ; for we can detect the Neuropteris 

 nervation under what appears to be a net work of delicate 

 thread-like branches, which partly overlies it. At first 

 sight these delicate branches might be taken for hairs, but 

 they are plainly off-shoots from the lateral nerves. The 

 plant has thus the appearance of a Dictyopteris. Von Rohl 

 figures in his "Fos. Fl. d. Steink. West." &c., PL XV, 

 Fig. 6, PL XXI, Fig. 76, a plant which would seem to be 

 close to ours, and which he calls Dictyopteris neuropter- 

 oides. 



Habitat.— Roof shales of the Waynesburg Coal, West 

 Union; Bellton, Marshall county, 400 feet above the 

 Waynesburg Coal. 



Neuropteris auriculata^ Brongt. 



This species seems quite widely distributed in the Upper 

 Carboniferous strata, though seldom found in great abund- 

 ance. At Cassville, in the roof shales of the Waynesburg 

 Coal, we find a fern which agrees quite closely with Brong- 

 niart's Neuropteris Villersii, which, as Schimper correctly 

 states, is identical with auriculata, for our plant passes 

 into the typical auriculata. Neuropteris auriculata is 

 abundant at West Union in the roof shales of the Waynes- 

 burg Coal, and passes up high in the Upper Barren Meas- 

 ures, occarring at Bellton 400 feet above the Waynesburg 

 Coal, and at other localities. 



Neuropteris odontopieroides, Sp. nov., PL IX, Figs. 

 1-6. 



(Frond, pinnate ; rachis, very stout, and broad ; p>innse, 

 alternate, or sub-opposite, oblong-ovate, or lanceolate, 

 going off nearly at a right angle, attached by the lower 

 part of the base, the upper being free and slightly cut 

 away, which, with the cutting away of the end of the pinnule 

 on the lower side, gives a squamose aspect to the same ; 



