The taxonomic and morphologic status of 
Ophioglossum Alleni Lesquereux 
ARTHUR HOLLICK 
(WITH PLATES 10-12) 
About fifty years ago Lesquereux described, without any 
accompanying illustration, an imperfect fossil plant specimen 
from the Miocene Tertiary shales of Florissant, Colorado, under 
the name Ophioglossum Alleni.* Ane peacigt sr was as follows: 
Leaf, ag narrowed by acurvet ter and broader 
than in O. vulgatum L., of our fae with the same grecla tio 
The leaf is Pisce 3 cent. long (point broken), a little more than 2 cent. 
broad, marked in the middle by the remnant of a fruiting pedice 
Subsequently the same author redescribed and figured itie 
specimen under the name Salvinia Alleni,j and remarked: 
“By its form, its areolation, its size, all its characters, indeed, 
it is remarkably similar to Salvinia reticulata Heer.”t His 
amended description was as follows: 
s oval, rounded in narrowing to the base; lateral veins, none 
viable areolae large, irregularly square or equilateral, inordinately distrib- 
uted. 
Leaf about three and a er cebtineters long, Seentp een pelimartets 
broad, of a thin substance, witha ) acai 
meshes, formed of very distinct black nervilles, the primar y ones more or 
less in Sat angle to the middle nerve, with oblique, generally earallel vein- 
lets betwee ; 
Later e listed hel iewiee two other, more perfect specimens,$ 
with the following brief comment: 
The species is common and has been obtained in large well-preserved 
specimens by the different collectors. The leaves are merely variable in size, 
obtuse-or-slightly emarginate at the apex, topped by the point of the ex- 
current nerve. 
* U.S. Geol. Survey Terr., Sixth Ann. Rept. 1872: 371. 1873 
t U.S. Geol. Survey Terr. arte * . Se Tertiary Flora): se OS 7. 1%: 
1878. Reproduced on PLATE 
t Flora Tertiaria Helvetiae ¥: ver) “ ae f. 16. 1859. Reproduced on 
PLATE 10, FIG 
U. S. Geol. Survey Terr. Rept. vol. 8 (The Cretaceous and Tertiary 
Floras): 136. pl. 21, f. 10, 11. 1883. Reproduced on PLATE 10, FIGS. 2, 3. 
207 
