428 Scientific Intelligence. 
adiantoides (Fossil Flora, i, 37) in the form of its pinnules; but the description of 
the latter is insufficient to determine their identity 
The third species agrees nearly with the Danaiies asplenioides of 
Goppert, and is ranked for the present as a variety of it (var. major). 
This species is described as follows: 
The frond appears to be bipinnate, ae if a flattened stem (apparently the stipes 
of a fern) which occurs in the same slab belonged to this plant, it was of large 
size, for the stem in question, in its phan state, measures an inch and a half 
The pinnules are closely set, oblique, rounded at the end, slightly com- 
bined at the base, but neither dilated nor decurrent, of an oblong or broadly lin- 
ear form, flat, or scarcely convex, about four-tenths of an inch long, and about 
half as sensi in breadth. Veins very indistinctly marked, but seemingly nearly 
perpendicular to the margin. The fructiferous pinnules ( Wiiiel are on a separate 
pinna, but which I believe to belong to the same species) are rather larger than 
the others, but of the same shape; the fructification has the appearance of linear 
masses, placed parallel and nearly contiguous to one another, perpendicular to the 
midrib, and extending from it quite to the margin. Its general resemblance to the 
fructification of the curious genus Danea is very striking, but I am not quite sat- 
isfied that it is really of the same nature; for on a close éiamidation one may de- 
tect traces of round spots; and perhaps “8 Raed linear masses may have 
been made up by the aggregation of numero 
Mr. Bunbury remarks that “ slisbogh oe itecdadieen of fructifica- 
tion in all these three plants are clear and unequivocal, yet in the first 
two species at least, it is invariably the upper surface of the frond that 
is exhibited to our view ; now, in all recent ferns, the fructification is sit- 
uated on the under surface : we must therefore suppose that what we 
see in these specimens are not the masses of capsules themselves, but 
the impressions of them, as it were, stamped through the substance of 
the leaves by the pressure to which they were subjected in the process 
of fossilization. This appears to be most usually the case with those 
fossil ferns which occur in a fertile state, and may be one reason why 
it is more difficult to determine with precision the characters of the 
fructification in these than in the recent plants. Dr. Lindley long ago 
observed,* that fossil ferns are much more often found with their uppet 
than with their lower surface exposed to view, the lower seeming to 
adhere more closely to the matrix; and Professor Goppert,t in bis cu- 
rious experiments on the artificial production of vegetable impressions, 
found that plants of this tribe did, in fact, constantly remain attached to 
the substance in which they were imbedded, by their lower and not by 
their upper surface, especially if they were in fructification . 
~The other plants procured by Mr. Lyell are the Nediaaets cordata, 
N. gigantea ?, ? Dr a (?), Pecopteris arborescens, P. abbreviata ?, ? 
endron tetragonum, L. aculeatum, L. ——??, 
gillaria senltieni ?, Stigmaria ficoides, ‘Kécetopbyliites foliosa; A. tu- 
bereulata ?, A. equisetiformis?, A. ——?, Artisia ——?, Calamites 
Pr ash ea al (is B : z pues yee! 
"Fol Flor, tex 1 Foi Pica Fail, p28 
