344 9 A. C. Seward—Cyclopteris from the Coal-measures. 
salt precipitated during the period of concentration, might become 
buried beneath layers of marl and clay abounding in the remains 
of mollusks and fishes. 
With this imperfect lesson on what is taking place in lakes at the 
present day, let us return to the Dead Sea. 
(Lo be concluded in our next Number.) 
I].—Woopwarpian Museum Notes. On a Specimen or CyrcLopreris 
(Brongniart. ) 
By Apert C. Sewarp, B.A., F.G.S., 
Foundation Scholar of St. John’s College, Cambridge. 
(PLATE X.) 
HE specimen of which I give below a brief description is of 
some interest as adding to the store of facts which may help 
us in the elucidation of the obscure genus Cyclopteris. So far as I 
know such large Cyclopteris leaves have not been previously figured 
attached to a rachis. 
The described specimen, which I have placed in the Woodwardian 
Museum, was given to me by Mr. Walter Hemingway, of Barnsley, 
who found it in the Upper Coal-measures of Brierly Common, York- 
shire. When first seen’ the rachis was 4ft. 2in. long, and had five 
pairs of pinnules, the distance between each pair decreasing towards 
the thinner end of the rachis. Unfortunately it was impossible to 
get the fossil out whole, only two pairs of pinnules being obtained 
in a perfect state. 
Frond pinnate. Pinnules suborbicular; sessile ; apparently lobed 
at the base, the lobes resting on the rachis: the lower margin of the 
pinnules is somewhat abruptly cut off as if the present shape might 
be due to tearing or imperfect preservation, the original pinnule 
having probably a more rounded or tapering base. No midrib, 
the nervures radiate from the basal portion of the pinnules and 
frequently dichotomise as they proceed towards the margin, where 
they are delicate and numerous. 
The rachis is represented by a raised portion of the stone, which 
is finely striated longitudinally, the strie being somewhat irregular, 
and not continuous from one end to the other: a few isolated frag- 
ments of carbanaceous matter represent the original cortical tissues 
of the rachis. 
Length of rachis shown in figure 8 cm.; breadth 2 cm.; pinnules 
in longest part 7 cm.; greatest breadth 5 cm. 
The genus Cyclopteris established by Brongniart in 1828, is 
defined by him as follows:*—‘‘Fronde simple, entiére, le plus 
souvent orbiculaire ou réniforme ; nervures nombreuses toutes égales, 
dichotomes, rayonnant de la base.” The essential generic characters 
being the absence of a midrib, and the basal origin of the nervures. 
In the ‘“ Histoire des végétaux fossiles” * Brongniart figures several 
1 T am indebted to Mr. Hemingway for these facts. 
2 Prodrome d'une hist. des végét. foss. p. 51 (1828). 
3 Hist. des yégét, foss. plates 61 and 61 bis. (1828-1837). 
