196 Mr Seward, Notes on the Bunhury Collection [Mar. 12, 



prove positively that the Neuropterids may not belong to that 

 family " (i.e. Gycadece). And further on : — " I shall not be sur- 

 prised to find that the Neuropterids differ considerably in their 

 real affinity from those recent ferns to which they have most 

 likeness in outline and veining\" 



Neuropteris cordata, Brong. (Bunbury's specimens referred 

 to Brongniart's species must be removed to N. Scheuchzeri Hoff.) 

 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Vol. ill. 1847, p. 423, PI. xxi. fig. 1. 



Gape Breton, Nova Scotia. Coal-Measures. 



Bunbury's specimens of this species no doubt represent the 

 same plant as that figured by Lesquereux^ as Neuropteris hirsuta. 

 Kidston^ includes N. hirsuta Lesq. as a synonym of N. Scheuchzeri 

 Brong. The hairs on the surface of the pinnules are shown very 

 clearly in Bunbury's specimens. 



Bunbury figures a pinnule which he describes as presenting 

 " appearances somewhat resembling fructification " ; but, he adds, 

 they may be due to some disease of the parenchyma or to a 

 fungus. The figures represent fairly accurately the appearances 

 in question ; they have the form of elliptical depressions between 

 the veins of the pinnule ; each pit is surrounded by a slightly 

 raised rim. 



Exactly similar marks have been figured by Fontaine and 

 White* ; these authors compare the oval depressions to the sori 

 and indusia of Scolopendriimi. The position of these pits be- 

 tween the veins as shown by the figures of Bunbury and Fontaine 

 and White, is scarcely consistent with the idea of sori. 



In any case, in the absence of all structure and detail, we 

 can only say that if the marks are really traces of fructification 

 they throw little or no light on the taxonomic position of the 

 species. 



There is no evidence whatever to warrant the assumption 

 that we have to do with fern sori, and we are still in the dark 

 as to the nature of the sporophylls of this form of Neuropteris. 



Kidston^ has shown that the fern pinnee figured by Bunbury 

 as N. cordata must be referred to Hoffmann's species N Scheuch- 

 zeri. The same writer expresses his belief that the so-called sori 

 of Bunbury, and Fontaine and White are simply the result of 

 fungal parasitism. 



1 Q. J. G. S. Vol. XIV. 1858, p. 245. 



2 Geol. Pennsylvania 1858, PL iii. Also Second Geol. Surv. Penn. 1880, Vol. i. 

 p. 88, PI. viii. fig. 1. 



^ Trans. E. Soc. Edinburgh, Vol. xxxiii. p. 356. (It should be noted that 

 Kidston in this paper, p. 359, corrects an opinion expressed by him in his Cat. 

 Palaeozoic plants.) 



" Second Geol. Surv. Penn. Eep. Progress P. P. 1880, p. 47, PI. viii. figs. 7 and 8. 



•' Trans. B. Soc. Edinburgh, Vol. xxxiii. p. 151. 



