134 FLORA OF LOWER COAL MEASURES OF MISSOURL 



18S9. Nevropteris hirsuta Lx., Lesley, Diet. Foss. Pennsylvania, vol. ii, p. 460-462, 16 



text figs. 

 1889. Neuropteris hirsuta Lx., Miller, Geol. Pal. N. Amer., p. 128, flg. 54. 

 1857. Neuropteris Rogersii Kimball (non Lx.), Fl. Appal. Coal Field, p.lO, pi. i, fig. 1. 

 1884. Neuropteris angustifolia Brongn. var. hirsuta Lesquereux, Coal Flora, vol. iii. 



p. 885. 



Few species among our Paleozoic ferns present a greater stratigraphic 

 range than that famihar in American paleontologic hterature under the name 

 Neuropteris hirsuta Lx. To the discussion of the identity of this species with 

 the N. angustifolia Brongn. and N. cordata, figured by Lindley and Hutton, 

 and its relations to other species given at length in my report on the flora of 

 the outlying carboniferous basins of southwestern Missoiu-i ^ I have but little 

 to add, and that is generally of a confirmative nature. 



Since the piiblication of those observations I have liad the opportunity 

 of closely examining, in the Lacoe collection, several hundred specimens, 

 mostly identified by Professor Lesquereux, and coming from nearly every 

 region of this country where Coal Measures ferns have been collected, and 

 after a painstaking comparison, side by side, of the specimens in Neuropteris 

 Mrsuta and N. angustifolia, together with a few others labeled since the 

 piiblication of the Coal Flora, as N. Scheuchzeri Hoffm., I am imable to find 

 ■ any essential character that seems to satisfactorily sustain a differentiation 

 of specific rank. 



As may in mau}^ cases be observed ni the lists published by localities, 

 the species N. hirsuta and N. angustifolia are both, if either, generally reported 

 from the same localities. Usually I not only find both forms from the same 

 locality, but in several instances, probably the result of hasty determination, 

 counterparts have been found under the two names. During the comparison 

 of details I have not been able to find any greater difference of nervation 

 between the pinnules of the two forms described as characteristic of the two 

 species than may frequently be found among the pinnules of species with 

 great vertical range, while the essential characters of basal auriculation, 

 attachment, and hirsuteness occur in both groups. In a series from the 

 Lower Productive Coal Measm-es (No. XIII) a gradation from the smaller, 

 more slender pinnules with acute tips to those of average size with more 

 rounded apices may usually be observed if the material is ample. In 



' Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 98, 1893. 



