FERNS— SPHENOPTERIDEiB—SPHENOPTEEIS, 57 



SpHENOPTERIS CAPITATA 11. sp. 



PI. XV, Pig. 3. 

 1897. Sphenopteris sp., D. White, Bull. Gcol. Soc. Auier., vol. viii, p. 300. 



Froud ti-ipinuate or poly pinnate, delicate; secondary (?) pinna?, alternate, 

 lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, tapering to a rather obtuse jjoiut; rachis 

 slender, somewhat flexuous, round, naked, smooth; ultimate pinnse oval- 

 lanceolate, alternate, close, rarely overlapping a little, slightly oblique, or 

 nearlj^ at a right angle to the rachis; pinnules alternate, hardly contiguous, 

 often with broad, stalk-like attachment, joined by a narrow wing decurring 

 along the rachis, ovate, sublobate in 3 to 5 more or less distinctly marked, 

 distally directed, rounded or obtusely pointed teeth or lobes; limb thin, 

 dull, minutely rugose, cut in acute decurrent sinuses between the pinnules 

 and lobes; nervation rather indistinct, the median nerve originating at an 

 acute angle with the rachis, curving outward, branching pinnately at a 

 moderate angle, one nervil passing into each lobe or tooth. 



The more salient features of this interesting plant are the compact 

 ultimate pinnas and the more or less distinctly broadly ovate pinnules or 

 lobes which are slightly incised by very broad, shallow sinuses or crenula- 

 tions to form broad, rounded, erect lobes, the lower being inclined so 

 obliquely as to give the pinnule a sliglitly stalked appearance. The 

 pinnules are more or less oblique, with a notably broad attachment with 

 the marginal wing. The nerves, which are incorrectly delineated in Fig. 

 3«, are slender and flexuous, forking at a moderate angle to furnish one 

 nervil for each lobe. The}' are mostly obscured in the smooth or very 

 minutely ragose, dull, opaque lamina. The mode of division and lobation 

 of this specimen is suggestive of that shown by Gutbier^ in his Sphenopteris 

 rutcBfolia [non (Eichw.) Schimp.], though the members of the latter, which 

 is referred to the Sph. gracilis type, are smaller and more deeply dissected. 



The texture, surface, obscure nervation, and the more compact pin- 

 nules, provided with but few very broadly rounded crenulations or teeth, 

 are characters by which the form before us can readily be distinguished 

 from corresponding portions oi Sphenopteris Brittsii Lx., in which the margin 



'Abdrucke, pi. s, figs. 10, 11, p. 42. 



