1E8QUEKEUX.1 PALEONTOLOGY LIGNITIC FLORA SPECIES. 393 



narrow, deeply marked ,• veins distinct, simple, or merely forking once 

 near the base or above tbe middle, open, slightly curved downward in 

 passing to the borders, which are slightly crenate by contraction to the 

 point of the veins. This fine fern is comparable to some species of 

 Dancea. It differs, however, from those which I have for comparison, 

 by the direction of the veins, which do not turn upward in reaching 

 the borders, but join them in the same curve and degree of divergence 

 which they follow from their point of attachment to the middle nerve. 



Habitat. — Golden. It is in the collection in many fragments, none 

 showing the point of the leaflets. 



Pteeis Gaedneri, sp. nov. 



Frond large, simply pinnate ; pinnae large, linear, in right angle to 

 the rachis, sessile, rounded to the base, with entire, deeply undulate 

 borders ; middle nerve broad, thin, grooved in the middle, flattened on 

 the borders 5 veins nearly at right angle to the midrib, abruptly curved 

 down at the base or decurriug to it, forking once near the base, and 

 once, also, generally above the middle; divisions or veinlets joined by 

 cross- branches, forming here and there some irregular elongated polygo- 

 nal areolae. The pinnae are larger than those of P. pennceformis, but 

 apparently of about the same form. The species essentially differs by 

 its strong, thick veins, more distant, joined by cross-branches, &c. 



Habitat. — Eoof of coal-mines, Sand Creek, Colorado, A. Gardner, 



DiPLAziUM MuELLERi (?), Hecr. 



Pinnae narrowly-lanceolate, tapering to a long acumen ; borders mar- 

 gined, inflated, distantly equally serrate; medial nerve broad, bi-grooved; 

 veins at an acute angle of divergence, very close, dichotomous, some of 

 the branches uniting by anastomosis ; substance very thick, coriaceous. 

 The substance of the leaflets seems composed of two layers ; the upper 

 one, either scaly or villous, is sometimes destroyed or erased as a 

 pellicle of coaly matter. Through this crust the veins are somewhat 

 obsolete ; but when it is destroyed, the details of nervation are very 

 clear. The anastomosis or cross-branches of the veinlets is somewhat 

 like that ot Fteris Gardneri ; it is, however, not as frequent. 



I consider this form as identical with Diplazium Muelleri as described 

 inHeer, (Boernst. Fl.,p.8,Pl.i,Fig. 2.) There is, however, a difference in 

 the borders of the pinnae, which, in the European species, are doubly 

 serrate, while they are equally and simply serrate in the American form ; 

 and in the cross-branches of the veinlets, which are not remarked in the 

 description and figures of Heer. It is probable that the specimens from 

 Boernstadt had the upper surface covered by the coating of scaly matter, 

 and that, therefore, the minute details of nervation were not observable. 

 Professor Heer finds the relation of his species to the living Diplazium 

 celtidifolium. Ours is rather comparable to some species of Acrostichum, 

 like A. aureum, which has also its veins here and there joined by cross- 

 veinlets. 



Habitat. — Golden ; South Table Mountain. 



ASPIDIUM GOLDIANUM, sp. UOV. 



Frond bi-tripinnatifid ; j^rimary pinnae enlarged, broadly deltoid ; sec- 

 ondary pinnae linear, alternate, rapidly decreasing in length in ascend- 

 ing, joined to the rachis in an obtuse angle of divergence, alternately 

 equally pinnately-lobed ; lobes free for two-thirds or three-fourths of 

 their length, oblong, obtusely or slightly acute, inclined outside ; mid- 



