68 THE OLDBE MESOZOIC FLOBA OF VIRGINIA. 



This well-marked little plant is the exact counterpart of the Zamia 

 taxina of Lindley and Hutton, figured on plate 175 of the "Fossil Flora of 

 Great Britain,'' and obtained from the Oolite of England. The English 

 authors were inclined to consider it as a smaller form of their Zamia pecten 

 from the same formation. It seems to me, however, that it is a very well- 

 marked and distinct species, for, in all the specimens seen by me, it retains 

 the characters given on Plate XXXIII in Figs. 2 to 4, and does not ap- 

 proach Zamia pecten, or, as Schimper makes it, Ctenophyllum pecten, in any 

 manner. This little plant has a close resemblance to the Pteropliyllum im- 

 bricatum (Ctenophyllum of Schimp.) of Ettingsh., from the lower Lias of 

 Steirdorf, except that the Steirdorf plant seems to have the leaflets more 

 closely placed. I am inclined to think that this results from the manner in 

 which the plant from Steirdorf has been compressed. The upward com- 

 pression has apparently closed up the leaflets so as to make them appear 

 imbricated. This is made highly probable by the fact that the Zamites 

 gracilis of Andrae, which is figured by him in his "Foss. Flor. Siebenb. 

 u. d. Banates," plate xi, figs. 4, 5, does not show this imbrication. This 

 latter is from the same formation at Steirdorf, and is clearly the same plant 

 with that of Ettingshausen. Andrae's plant is strikingly like the Virginia 

 fossil. It is probably the same with it and the English plant. 



There is also a certain resemblance to Heer's Pteropliyllum Meriani, a 

 figure of which is given in his "Flor. Foss. Helvetia?, die Pfl. der Trias," 

 plate xxx, fig. 9. Heer's plant, however, is considerably more robust, and 

 the leaflets are wider than those of the Virginia fossil. 



Formation and locality. — Found at Midlothian, on the same sandstone 

 with Pteropliyllum affine. Exact horizon not known. 



Ctenophyllum truncatum, spec. nov. 



Plate XXXVIII, Figs. 3 to 5. 



Leaf (?) Leaflets obliquely placed, remote, narrowing gradually from the upper 

 portion, which is the widest, and slightly decurrent on the midrib, truncate at the 

 extremity. Leaf substance apparently thick. Nerves not fully shown, immersed in 

 the leaf substance, very slender, forking at the insertion in some cases, all parallel to 

 eacli other. 



