120 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



of Lepidodciuh'on ; " ^ but there can remain no doubt as to tlie 

 fossil being a fern referable to Spiropferis. 



The same writer in 1857 ^ figured and described a specimen 

 of Ncuroptcris (probably, as suspected by the author, Neur. 

 gigantea, Sternb.) circinately coiled, from Glodwick Colliery, 

 near Oldham, Lancashire. 



Examples of Neuropteris in this condition are even more 

 rare than those of Pccoptcris. 



The figure which accompanies his paper shows a very 

 perfect example with the usual accompanying scales on 

 the rachis. 



Mr T. Stock has shown me a small circinate specimen 

 of Nciiroptcris from the Coal-measures near Dysart, Fife ; 

 but this one probably belongs to N. Losliii (Brongn.), as it 

 was associated with that fern. 



In the " Illustrations of Fossil Plants," which consists of a 

 reproduction of a number of unissued plates prepared by 

 Lindley and Hutton for their " Fossil Flora," three good 

 figures of Spiroptcris are given.^ 



Plates xlv. and xlvii. are referable to Neuropteris, but 

 of that on PL xlvi. the genus is uncertain.* 



In a paper on Sphenopteris affinu (L. & H.),^ Mr C. W. Peach 

 gives some good figures of the young state of this fern. 

 His figures 6 and 7 show very clearly the characteristic 

 dichotomy of the rachis of this species. 



The above is a list of the chief Paheozoic examples of 

 Spiroptcris which have been figured and described ; and it is 

 remarkable, that though ferns are our most common class of 

 fossil plants in the Carboniferous formation, specimens showing 

 their early stages of development are so seldom met with. 



There is another group of fossils which, though very similar 



' Quart. Jonrn. Geol. Soc, vol. viii., p. 32. 



- Bunbury, "On a remarkable Specimen of Neuropteris, ^Yith Remarks on 

 the Genus" (Quart. Jonrn. Geol. Soc, vol. xiv., p. 243). 



3 Edited by G. A, Lebour, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1877. 



* See Crepin, Revision de quelques especes figurees dans I'ouvrage intitule 

 " Illustrations of Fossil Plants " (Soc. Roy. de botanique de Belgique, vol. 

 XX., part ii., p. 25, 1881). 



^ Quart. Jonrn. Geol. Soc, vol. xxxiv., p. 131, pi. viii., figs. 5-7. 



