60 FLORA OF LOWER COAL :\rEASURT-:S OF MLSSOURI. 



to these divisions, is marked by an outward pushing of the hxmina on the 

 proximal margin above the middle so as to form a step-like offset in the 

 margin, which is gradually cut into a rather blunt, broad lobe or tooth by 

 the descent of an oblique sinus. Another characteristic of the species is 

 the upward dii'ection of the divisions, which, except when the lower inferior 

 lobe is polymorphous, brings the points of the lower lobes or teeth a con- 

 siderable distance from the base of the pinna or pinnule. 



As will be seen from the above notes and a comparison with the origi- 

 nal figures, the smaller type illustrated by Lesquereux is very different in 

 form, di^'ision, and nervation from the larger type shown in fig. 1, pi. x, of 

 the Illinois Report, copied as fig. 2 of the plate in the Coal Floi-a. In short, 

 it does not seem possible that pinnpe with the type of large, lax, rather 

 broadly confluent, crenulate pinnules with a flexuous, rather narrowly 

 bifurcated and outward-cur^ ing system of nervation illustrated in this 

 figure could have .belonged to the same species as that described above. 

 Accordingly, I find myself impelled to separate this larger form, fig. 1 of the 

 Illinois Report or fig. 2 of the Pennsylvania Report, from the small species 

 lying before me; and since tlois smaller species from Illinois and Missouri 

 seems in its form, mode of division, and nervation to be a Splienopteris rather 

 than either a Pse%ido'peco2')teris or a Pecopteris, I am constrained, though not 

 without regret, to give it a new name, there being already a Sphenopteris 

 hymenophyUoicles Brongn. 



Should the mode of division in the frond of our species be found to be 

 that of Pseudopecopteris, then either the specific name liyinenophylloides Lx. 

 may be restored, in which case it will be necessary to furnish some other 

 designation for the large species from Mazon Creek, Illinois, or the name 

 iUinoisensis may be continued, the species represented by the large type 

 being still known by its original appellation. 



LocaUti/.—B.ohhs's coafbank, U. S. Nat. Mus., 5564, 5661, 37. 



Sphenopteris (Crossotheca) ophioglossoides (Lx.). 

 PI. XX, Figs. 3, 4. 



1879. Sorocladus ophioglossoides Lesquereux, Coal Flora, Atlas, p. 8, pi. xlviii, flg. 11; 

 text, vol. i (1880), p. 329. 



Fronds large, quadiipiunate or polypinnate; primarj- jjhinfe rather 

 dense, rough, and somewhat rigid; secondary pinnfe oblique, alternate. 



