On the Fossil Vegetation of America. 89 
cent ferns, whose leaves are scattered in such profusion around 
them, although I am aware that both Géppert and Lindley have 
withheld their full assent to this opinion. 
e specimen of S. oculata is surrounded by 
leaves calculated to remove a portion of the doubt on 
this subject. Fig. 4 is a representation of what I 
consider the upper and under side of the leaf. On the 
upper side, a and b, there is the impression of a fine 
channel along the midrib, caused by the protuberance 
of what may be termed the receptacles of the fructi- 
fication on each side of the midrib on the under 
side ; the depression in the slate, letter 6, caused by 
these protuberances, is very clear in the specimen. 
Fig. c represents the under part of the leaf; here the 
spaces corresponding to these protuberances are pitted, as repre- 
sented by the dotted part. ‘The space between these dots and 
the margin of the leaf, is perfectly smooth and even, and the sep- 
aration between them well defined. I consider this pitted part 
to be the impression of the fructification of a species of Blech- 
num. In order to make this clear, fig. 5 repre- 
Sets impressions in fine plaster of Paris, of 
leaves of the recent aborescent fern, Blechnum _ 
braziliense—a the under side, b the upper side. é 
It is difficult in figures to give every character 
of the resemblance, but I am sure it is too per- 
fect to be mistaken. 
he veins in this species of recent Blechnum are internal and 
hot very prominent, and the texture of the leaf is hard and coria- 
ceous ; in my first impressions in plaster, the veins were slightly 
exhibited, and there is no trace of them in the fossil ; but on the 
application of slight pressure to the recent leaves prior to taking 
off the impressions, it became as smooth as the fossil. It is true 
that in B. braziliense, the sori, though contiguous and confluent, 
are not single and continuous along each midrib as they appear 
in the fossil, but in Salpichlena volubilis, (J. Smith, ) the Blech- 
num volubile of Kaulfuss, and in others, this continuous linear 
character exists. 
I believe this to be the first fructification of a fossil fern re- 
sembling Blechnum that has been observed ; I would, therefore, 
name this Blechnites oculata, but I am in hopes that careful ob- 
servations of the coal deposits will ere long enable us to assign 
the foliage belonging to most of the stems, and then a revision of 
the nomenclature will become necessary. mK 
I regret that in my specimen neither end of a leaf is present ; but 
from the width, both of the leaf and the fructification, it is prob- 
able that it was a larger fern than B. braziliense. 
Szconp Series, Vol. 111, No. 7.—Jan., 1847. 2 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 5. 
