290 Berry: A NEW MATONIDIUM FROM COLORADO 
largest fruiting material there are six or seven sori on the distal 
halves of the pinnules and seven or eight on their proximal halves, 
(PLATE 13, FIG. 6), a less number than in Matonidium Althausu, as 
already remarked. The sori also differ from those of the latter in 
being isodiametric instead of transversely elongate and more or less 
rectangular. 
The material, which was collected by J. T. Duce, comes from 
the divide between Cutthroat Gulch and Hovenweep Canyon west 
of Dolores and is contained in a light somewhat ferruginous sand- 
stone containing little quartz and a great deal of feldspar, and 
apparently corresponds to what Cross correlated with the Dakota 
_ sandstone in the San Juan region of Colorado. 
The family Matoniaceae is one of exceptional botanical in- 
terest. Its sole existing genus, Matonia R. Brown (1830), con- 
tains but two known species which differ remarkably in vegeta- 
tive habit and are both confined to the uplands of the Malay 
Peninsula and the island of Borneo. The older and only species 
known up to 1888 was commonly associated with the family 
Cyatheaceae, although its intermediate character had usually 
_ resulted in its being set apart as a special tribe. It has also been 
associated with the Gleicheniaceae and the Polypodiaceae. Christ 
(1897) and most subsequent workers have regarded Matonia as the 
sole existing type of a distinct family, and an admirable account 
of the genus and of some of its fossil relatives was given by Seward 
in 1899.* 
The extinct genus Matonidium, to which the Colorado plant is 
referred, was a characteristic type of the Jurassic .and especially 
of the Lower Cretaceous. Although known as early as 1843 its 
botanical affinity was first recognized by Schenk in 1871 and it 
has subsequently been found to have been widespread in the 
European region and more sparingly represented in the western 
United States. Most of the occurrences have been referred to 
the single species Matonidium Althausii, although Krassert 
has described a well characterized species from the Upper Cre- - 
taceous (Cenomanian) rocks of Moravia, which appears to have 
also been present in rocks of the same age in Bohemia. 


* Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. 191B: 171-209. pl. 17~20. 1890. 
{ Beitr. Palaon. Oesterreich-Ungarns 10: 119. pl. rz, f. 1; pl. 12, f. 1, 2; pl. 17, 
f. 10. 1896 ee ; 
