SPHENOPHYLLALES— SPHENOPHYLLUM. 1 79 



1869, Sphenophyllum emarginatum Brongn. var. (i Brongniartianum C. and K., von Eoehl, 



Foss. Fl. Steinkohlenf. Westpbalens, p. 30, pi. xxvi, flg. 2; pi. xxxii, fig. 6A. 

 1879. SpheiiophyUum euneifol'mni (Stb.) Zeill., Vi'g. foss. terr. liouill., p. 3 (pars). 

 1882. An Sphcnophyllinn truncatum Brongn., Eeuault, Oours bot. foss., vol. ii, p. 87, 



pi. xiii, figs. 8,9'? 



I have referred, though in part provisional!)^, to Sphenophyllum emargi- 

 natum, a number of specimens in which the hxrge broad leaves, the slightly 

 rounded or even fainth^ cordate apex, the nervation, and the blunt teeth 

 seen in some cases seem to be characteristic of the species, American repre- 

 sentatives of which were first published by Brongniart^ from Wilkesbarre, 

 Pennsylvania. Some of these specimens, in which the teeth are broken 

 away or buried, probably constituted the basis for the identification and 

 enumeration of S. Schlotheimii Brongn. in the list of plants from Missouri. 

 But notwithstanding the identification of the common form in Pennsylvania 

 by Brongniart, the species is badl}^ confused in om- American material. 

 The examination of a large numljer of examples in different collections 

 shows that in most cases, including the specimens from Missouri in the 

 Lacoe collection, and the other collections in the U. S. National Museum, the 

 fossils labeled S. ScMotheimii by Lesquereux " have the characters of S. 

 emarginatum. 



Plants referable to the Palmacites verticiUatus of Schlotheim,^xhe specific 

 name of which Kidston has justly restored, are extremely rare in tlie Ameri- 

 can Carboniferous flora, so far as it has yet beenmade known. This species 

 differs greatly from the true ^S*. emarginatum by the rounded, not cordate, 

 summit, which, as I interpret the figures, is smooth or slightly crenulate, 

 often giving the leaf a narrowly obovate form, while the nerves, 15 to 20 in 

 number, dichotomize several times from a single original nerve. The com- 

 mon form in Missouri has, on the contrary, usually but 7 to 15 nervils to the 

 leaf, which is not rounded, but, like most of .the common representatives of 

 the species from other localities in this country, seems to belong to the 

 variety Brongniartianum as figured hj Goemans and Kickx* and others. 



> Prodrome 1828, p. 172. 



- The specimen figured by this distinguished and justly honored paleobotanist in the Kept. Geol. 

 Surv. Indiana, 1880, p. 374, pi. sliii, fig. 2 (copied by Lesley in Diet. Foss. Pennsylvania, vol. iii. p. 980), as 

 S. Schlotlieimii belongs with others to the *'. emarginatum, while, on the other hand, fig. 3 of the same 

 plate (Lesley, op. cit., p. 978) belongs very probably to the group represented by S.filiculme Lx. 



^ Flora d. Vorwelt, 1801, pi. ii, fig. 24:.=S2}henophyUum Schlotheimii Brongn. 



••Monogr. d. genre Sphenophyllum d' Europe: Bull. Acad. Roy. Belgique, (2) vol. xviii, 1864, p. 139, 

 pi. i, fig. 3. 



