42 FLORA OF LOWER COAL MEASURES OF MISSOURI. 



whatever questions may remain concerning the rehxtionship of the genus 

 Hymenoiheca to the Hymenojjhyllacece. 



Sphenopteris Broadheadi seems to differ from the type species of Hyme- 

 notheca from Schwadowitz by its more ovate lobes, generally more clearlv 

 bi- or tripartite, and the larger or more oval sporangia. 



The specimen photographed, Figs. 1 and la, PI. XIII, represents a seg- 

 ment from the upper part of a supjDosed primary pinna. It illustrates well 

 the characteristic bi- or trilobation of the pinnules or ultimate divisions, 

 which may be noted also in Fig. 2a, drawn from a large segment from the 

 middle of a tripinnate fragment. Unfortunately all the specimens appear 

 to show the upper surface of the fronds, so that the fructifications are seen 

 in the impressions as depressed granular areas, lying within the periphery 

 of the limb, although close up in the apex. The position of the sporangia 

 within the marg'in of the lamina seems to disagree with the fruit of Diplotli- 

 mema as developed in Biplothmema Zeilleri Stur,^ to the fertile pinnae of 

 which the smaller di^^sions of our fossils bear a considerable resemblance. 

 Furthermore, as was remarked above, in a few instances there appears to be 

 a longitudinal line traversing the sporangia in the Missouri specimens. The 

 Sphenopteris fertilis, illustrated by Renault,^ may belong to the same genus. 



The general habit of the small pinnules in the upper part of our speci- 

 mens is much like that seen in Sphenopteris tenella Brongn.^ or in S. Wood- 

 wardii Kidst.'' Our species seems also rather close to Hymenophyllites Hnm- 

 holdtii as figured by Goeppert,'"* while it is also comparable to Feistmantel's 

 figure'' of Hymenophyllites Schimperiana Groepp. 



As remarked in the discussion of Sphenopteris missouriensis, that species 

 ma}', perhaps, represent the sterile fronds of the plant, to the fertile portion 

 of which I have given the name Sphenopteris Broadheadi. As stated before, 

 I have separated the fertile fragments on account of the differences in the 

 form of their pinnae, in the degree of division or incision in proportion to 

 the size of the lobes or pinnules, and the greater simplicity of the larger 

 and more decurrent lobes. 



Locality. — Pitcher's coal bank, U. S. Nat. Mus., 5619, 5620. 



' Zeiller, Fl. loss, houill. Valenciennes, Atlas, pi. xv, figs. 5, 5n-6. 



- Cours. bot. foss., vol. iii, pi. xssiii, tigs. 15, 16. 



^ Hist. V(^g. loss., p. 186, pi. slix, ligs. 1, In. 



^ Kidstoii. Trans. Roy. Soe. Edinb., vol. xxxiii, jil. xix, figs. 1, la-c. 



'"•Foss. Fl. Uebergangsgebirge, pi. xxxi, figs. 1, 2. 



'• Zeitscbr. il. Dentscb. Geol. Gesell., 1!<T3, pi. xv, figs. 13, 13«, p. 513. 



