74 Mr. R. Kidston on Pecopteris (? polymorpha, 
These show nothing further than the midribs of the pinnules, 
which appear as strongly defined ridges. There is no evi- 
dence in the specimen itself to indicate the species to which 
it belongs ; but from the occurrence of fragments of Pecopteris 
polymorpha, Brongn., on the same slab *, it probably belongs 
to that fern. 
The specimen is in the collection of the Geological Survey 
of Great Britain, to whom it was presented by Mrs. Stock- 
house Acton. 
My thanks are due to Dr. A. Geikie, F.R.S., Director- 
General of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, for per- 
mission to describe this interesting fossil. 
Position and Locality. From the Coal-measures, Leebot- 
wood, about nine miles from Shrewsbury. 
As a means of giving a definite place in the classification of 
fossil plants to such fossils as that just described, Schimper 
has proposed the genus Spiropteris t, in which he places 
those specimens of ferns that do not afford sufficient characters 
for the determination of the species to which they belong. 
For fossils of this nature the genus is very useful, as it gives 
a fixed, though provisional, position to many interesting speci- 
mens which cannot be specifically associated with the fully- 
developed frond. 
Several very interesting examples of Spdropter’s have been 
already described. 
In 1828 Brongniartf figured a Spzropteris-condition of Pec. 
Miltont, Artis (=Pec. polymorpha, Brongn.), which shows a 
few of the pinne spirally coiled. 
Goppert gives a figure of circinate vernation of Pec. 
Jdgert§. It exhibits a very young condition of probably a 
whole frond. He also gives another specimen of Spzropteris 
on his plate xxxvi. fig. 8. 
Probably the most interesting figures of Spiropterts are 
those given by Germar ||, which he named Selaginites Erd- 
mannt. ‘These, as Schimper has pointed out, are not Lyco- 
pods, but young ferns {], and referable to Sprropteris. 
Though the specimens are of considerable size, they show 
merely the early condition of a large frond. The dense cover- 
* Not shown in the figure. 
+ Traité d. Paléont. Végét. vol. i, p. 688, pl. xlix. (1869). 
{ Hist. d. Végét. Foss. p. 334, pl. exiv. fig. 1. 
§ Die fossilen Farrnkrauter, p. 368, pl. xxii. fig. 6 a (1836). 
| Die Verst. d. Stemkoblengebirges y. Wettin u. Lobejun, p. 61, 
pl. xxvi. (1844). 
q Schimper, Traité d. Pal. Vég. vol. i. p. 689, 
