﻿184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 12, 



gniart's plant, the frond is divided less than half-way down : its lobes 

 contiguous, broad, not tapering downwards (or but very slightly so), 

 abrupt or truncated at their extremities, and often emarginate ; there 

 is nothing of that tendency to a regular dichotomous division, which 

 is conspicuous in the other ; the general outline is a large segment 

 of a circle, — more than a semicircle, — the outermost lobes pointing 

 somewhat backwards. The texture of the leaf appears fine, close, and 

 firm ; the surface glossy ; the veins slender, but sharp and very di- 

 stinct. Lindley and Hutton's plant has its leaf (in all the specimens 

 I have seen) cleft into two, quite down to the stalk : the divisions 

 repeatedly lobed in a dichotomous manner ; the lobes rather widely 

 separated, more or less wedge-shaped, obtuse, but by no means trun- 

 cated. The texture appears much coarser than in the first, with 

 comparatively large and rather prominent cells, which give an ap- 

 pearance of roughness to the surface, apparently independent of the 

 texture of the stone. The veins also are coarser, more nearly parallel, 

 and less frequently forked. Whatever this plant may be, Bron- 

 gniart's Cyclopteris digitata is undoubtedly a true Fern. This last 

 seems to be confined to the upper plant-bed, or that of Gristhorpe ; 

 the C. Huttoni prevails more in the lower sandstones, but must have 

 an extensive geological range, since it has been found by Dunker in 

 the Wealden formation. 



3. Sagenopteris cuneata, Morris, Cat. Brit. Foss. p. 20. 



Otopteris cuneata, L. & H. Foss. Fl. t. 155. 



It appears very singular that this plant should have been referred 

 by the authors of the ' Fossil Flora ' to the genus Otopteris, since 

 their own figure shows that it has none of the characters of that 

 group. Professor Goeppert, who refers it to his Adiantites, appears 

 not to have seen a specimen, and to have overlooked the reticulation 

 of the veins, correctly represented in Lindley and Hutton's figure. 

 I have examined, in Mr. Bean's collection, the identical specimen 

 figured in the 'Fossil Flora,' and I am satisfied that Mr. Morris 

 has judged rightly in referring this plant to the same genus with the 

 Sagenopteris or Glossojderis Phillipsii. But I am inclined to go 

 further, and to believe that the so-called Otopteris cuneata is merely 

 an imperfect or abnormal state, — probably a seedling, — of the same 

 Sagenopteris Phillipsii. Mr. Bean's specimen, just mentioned, has 

 two obovate or subcuneate leaflets seated at the top of a broad flat 

 stalk ; there is no appearance of the stalk having been prolonged 

 beyond them, or having borne other leaflets ; the manner in which 

 they are attached to the stalk by a narrow base, but not articulated 

 with it, is exactly the same as in Sagenopteris Phillipsii ; and the 

 venation, which is very marked and peculiar, closely agrees, except 

 that there is no distinct midrib. Another specimen in Mr. Bean's 

 collection has, in the place of the two leaflets, a single terminal one, 

 inversely heart-shaped, cleft rather deeply (but not half-way) into two 

 lobes ; the venation the same as in the other. This sort of variation 

 in form appears to me quite analogous to what we often see in thp 



