MESOZOIC PLANTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 103 



plant, and refers it for its locality to the Richmond Coal Basin. He does 

 not state whether it occurs in the North Carolina Mesozoic or not. We are 

 thus left in doubt, as he may have merely given the description and figure 

 for the sake of comparison and information. I shall hence include this 

 plant in the North Carolina field doubtfully. 



Arcostichites oblongus. 

 Plate XLIX, Fig. 1. 

 Emmons's "Am. Geol.", plate 4, figs. 6,8, p. 101. 



" Frond bipiiiuate ; primary pinnae going off at nearly right angles, prolonged and 

 tapering ; leaflets oblong, obtnse, close placed, and adherent by their whole base, which 

 is slightly dilated ; midribs rather faint, especially near the apex; side veins make 

 rather an acute angle, anastomosing, but frequently fork towards the margin ; primary 

 rachis thick and straight." 



Dr. Emmons seems to think that this plant may have been mistaken 

 for Veccpteris Whitbiensis, though it is not clear why. He points out the 

 differences, which are of -course obvious. It is much like Lonchopteris 

 Virginiensis in the general facies and shape of the pinnules, while the ner- 

 vation is rather more lax in the central part of the pinnule, as given in Fig. 

 1 a. On account of the differences in the nervation, I hesitate to unite it 

 with Lonchopteris Virginiensis, and suggest that it retain the specific name 

 oblong us, whence the entire name would be Lonchopteris oblong us. It occurs 

 at Ellington's. 



Taeniopteris magnifolia, Rogers. 

 Emmons's "Am. Geol.", p. 102. 



Dr. Emmons gives a figure of a fragment of this plant, which is the 

 Macrotceniqpteris magnifolia so common in the Richmond Coal Field. He 

 says: "This plant is often, if not always, divided into segments down to 

 the midrib as represented in the figure. Whether it is the result of accident, 

 age, or is a part of its natural character, is not determined." 



If this is a constant feature, as Dr. Emmons says it is, it could 

 hardly be the result of accident. In* the hundreds of specimens of this 

 plant which have passed under my eye in the Virginia Mesozoic, though 

 many of them were split and lacerated, yet this injury was never of a 

 character to suggest that it was anything but the result of accident, 

 and there Avas never the least regularity about it. The constant recur- 

 rence of the peculiar segmentation mentioned by Dr. Emmons strongly 



