50 W. Carrutkers — Notes on Fossil Plants. 



Fern ; and Scliimper, in his Traite de Pal. V^g^t. (vol. i, p. 457), 

 proposed the genus Falceopteris for this and four other species which 

 he associates with it. He has given an admirable figure of a portion 

 of a frond, and a less correct one, as I believe, of a fertile pinna 

 (pi. xxxvi.). More recently, Mr. Baily has given a restoration of 

 the Fern in his Figures of Characteristic British Fossils (pi. xxviii. 

 fig. 1.) He represents it as a somewhat deltoid frond, 30 in. long 

 by 25 in. broad with 12 pinnee. The specimens I have examined 

 are much longer in proportion to their width, and agree with the 

 description Schimper gives of their form, that it is broadly ovate- 

 lanceolate. In one specimen in the collection of the British Museum, 

 19 pinnse are shown in a length of 2 ft. 4 in., and the fragment 

 is without base or apex. The longest pinna in this specimen is 

 11 inches. 



The stipes were thick, of considerable length, and clothed with 

 large scales, which formed a dense covering at the somewhat 

 enlarged base. The well defined separation which I have observed 

 in several specimens, and which is shown in Mr. Baily's figure, as 

 well as in that which accompanies this paper, probably indicates that 

 the stipes were articulated to the stem or freely separated from it, 

 and some slender root-like structures which occur on the slabs with 

 the ferns may be their creeping rhizomes. The pinnse are linear, 

 obtuse, and almost sessile. The pinnules are numerous, overlapping, 

 of an ovate or oblong-ovate form, somewhat cuneate below, and with 

 a decurrent base. The veins are very numerous, uniform, repeatedly 

 dichotomous, and run out to the margin, where they form a slight 

 serration. Single pinnules rather larger than those of the pinnse are 

 placed over the free spaces of the rachis, as was pointed out by 

 Brongniart. I have not met with any recent fern in which this 

 occurs ; but it has been observed in several fossil species, as in the 

 allied American P. Malliana, Sob.., in SpJienopteris erosa, Morris, and 

 others. 



Schimper describes the fertile pinnules as situated in the middle of 

 the pinnae, and consisting of numerous pedicellate fascicles of sori, 

 borne on the primary nerve. The sorus, he says, is club-shaped, 

 and the vein on which it is borne is continued to the apex of the 

 segment. In some specimens in the British Museum all the lower 

 pinn^ are entirely fertile. I am satisfied that the ovate-oblong sori 

 are generally single, and not clustered (Fig. 4.), and are two-lipped, 

 the slit passing one-third of the way down the sorus. The vein is 

 continued as a free receptacle in the centre of the cup or cyst, as in 

 existing Hymenophyllece, in which it is included, not reaching beyond 

 its entire portion. In some specimens the receptacle is broad or 

 thick, indicating the presence of something besides itself in the cup, 

 and giving the appearance that would be produced if it were covered 

 with sporangia ; I cannot, however, detect any indication on the 

 outer surface which might have been expected from the individual 

 sporangia. The comj^ression of the specimens in the rock, which 

 has made the free receptacle appear like a vein on the wall of the 

 cup, together with the highly altered condition of the rock in which 



