FEKNS— PECOPTEKlDEiE— PECOPTEEIS. 95 



morplious, oval, ovate or oblong-, obtuse, sometimes irregularlj^ lobecl when 

 becoming pinnatifid, connate for some distance, especially in tlie j^ounger 

 pinna?, dissected by a narrow, deepl}' decurrent sinus when large; lamina 

 rather thin, villous, generally flat, or nearly so; nervation usually obscure; 

 median nerve more or less decurrent, strong at the base, and vanishing in 

 the upper part of the pinnule; nervils distant, fine, originating at a rather 

 narrow angle, forking once near the base, the upper branch, sometimes both 

 branches in the larger pinnules, forking again, and passing very obliquely 

 to the margin; sporangia oval, averaging .5 mm. in length and .4 mm. in 

 width, arranged 5 to 7 in the sorus, which, when crushed, nearl}- covers 

 the lower surface of the pinnule. 



This species as described and illustrated by Lesquereux^ is not infre- 

 quent in the Missouri material, especially in that from Hobbs's coal bank. 

 In these specimens, as ^^H^11 as in the many examples from this region in 

 the Lacoe collection labeled with this name by Lesquereux, the most 

 striking features which appear on first glancing at the specimens are tlie 

 variability in the size of the pinnte and pinnules, the lax and the irregular 

 attitude of the pinnte, and the frequent occurrence of a heteromorphous 

 development near the apices of some of the pinnaj.^* In many specimens 

 this is much more marked than is shown in the specimen given in fig. 1 of 

 the plate in the Coal Flora. The decurrent bases of the pimiules, forming 

 a marginal Aving even in the larger pinnules, and the degree of the conna- 

 tion of the pinnules in tlie smaller pimife, are suggestive of a Sphenopterid 

 relation. 



In some of the examples, like that illustrated, PI. XXXIV, the leaf 

 substance is so macerated that it is possible, especially on the lower side, 

 to see the nervation, which in better-preserved fragments, such as the one 

 shown in Fig. 4, PL XXXV, is very much if not totally obscured beneath 

 the villous covering. Traces of the villosity are, however, to be seen in 

 nearly all the specimens. 



A number of macerated and semitraiisparent specimens of this type, 

 from the same region, were labeled by Lesquereux as CaUipteridium mem- 

 branaceum Lx. Among the examijles of such a reference in the Lacoe 



> Cocl I- lora, vol. 1, p. 251, pi. xlii, figs. 1-4, 4« (not figs. 5, 5a-b). 



''This, of course, does not apply to the small specimeus of the smooth plant with difterent form 

 and nervatiou, which I have described as Vecopteris iiseudovestita. 



