DESCRIPTION OF SPECIP:s. PP. 59 



the parts of the plant, as seen in situ, it must have been 

 one of the largest of the Carboniferous ferns, surpassing 

 in size C. Dawsonianum. Owing to the nature of the con- 

 taining shale it could only be obtained in a rather frag- 

 mentary condition. The leaf-substance was exceedingly 

 thick and leather-like, leaving deep indentations in the 

 shale. The fructified pinnules were too poorly preserved 

 to show the details with distinctness. The rounded lobes 

 of the lowest pinnules, owing to the thick nature of the 

 leaf -substance, and pressure into the yielding mud on which 

 they fell, often have their margins curved down, causing 

 the surface of the lobe to stand out in relief. Fig. 1 shows 

 the low^est part of the frond, with the irregular lobing ; Figs. 

 2 and 3 show portions of the middle of the frond ; Fig. 4, 

 shows a somewhat higher portion, and Fig. 2, PL XVI, gives 

 the summit of the primary pinnae. Fig. 4 shows that the 

 fertile pinnules are more distinct, and more contracted at 

 base, than the normal sterile pinnules. 



This plant in several features has a close resemblance with 

 Geinitz's j)lant which he figures in Steinkoh. von Sachs. 

 PI. XXXII, Figs. 1-5, as Alethopteris (Pecopteris) ptero- 

 ides, and w^hich as Grand 'Eury correctly says, seems to 

 be a different plant from Brongniart's P. pteroides. The 

 points of difference however are too numerous to permit us 

 to unite them. 



The fructified pinnse, and the mode of fructification, are 

 most strikingly like those of Asplenites Ottonis, Schenk, 

 from the Rhaetic, and given in his "Foss. Flor. d. 

 Grenzsch," &c., PL XI, Figs. 1 and 2. It forms another 

 of the many plants which we find in the Upper Carbonif- 

 erous of West Virginia, foreshadowing in a striking manner 

 Triassic and Rhaetic types. 



Habitat. — ^^Roof shales of the Waynesburg Coal, West 

 Union, West Virginia. 



Callipteridium odontopteroides, sp. nov.,PL XVI, Fig. 1. 



(Frond, bi or tripinnate ; principal rachis, slender ; pri- 

 mary pinnae, or frond, elliptical in outline ; pinnae, numer- 

 ous, crowded together and growing shorter towards the 



