1859.] I)E ZIGXO JURASSIC FLOKA. l|:i 



hausen, and to the Pachypteris of Brongniart. M. Andrac, in the work 

 cited above, has already referred the Thinnfeldia to Pachypteris, 

 pointing out that the Sphenopteris lanceolata and the Newopteris 

 laevigata of Phillips, eited by Brongniart as synonyms, have flabellate 

 veins, and want the character which Brongniart particularly men- 

 tions, that is to say, pinnules with one single midrib. It now re- 

 mains to find out whether in the Yorkshire beds there exist true 

 Pachypterides with this last character, which I doubt, but which can 

 only be ascertained by the geologists of England. 



In the last place, I venture further to detain the Society by direct- 

 ing its attention to another plant, of which I shall give the analysis 

 in the third Part of my ' Flora.' It is the Equisetites columnaris, 

 which many authors have pointed out as being a species common to 

 the beds of the Kcuper, the Lias, and the Oolite. This wide range 

 has hitherto not been disputed in any positive manner, although Stern- 

 berg and Bronn have remarked that probably different species were 

 intended. The character of the swelling of the articulations, pointed 

 ottt by Konig, is clearly seen in all the figures which accompany Sir 

 Roderick Murchison's memoir on Brora, as well as in that of the 

 work of Young and Bird ; while this swelling does not exist in the 

 specimens which are procured from other formations. M. Brongniart, 

 after saying that the sheaths are closely pressed to the stem, and 

 thus cause the appearance of a swelling, denies the existence of 

 those swellings pointed out by Konig. But the figures given by Bron- 

 gniart, in his ' History of Fossil Plants,' of specimens received from 

 Yorkshire, represent impressions pretty well preserved, and show- 

 that these swellings exist, and are certainly not owing to the sheaths, 

 the delicate tissue of which could not have caused these impressions, 

 especially as they were, according to Brongniart, eauli arete appli- 

 cata . Moreover the figures in the memoir of Sir Roderick Murchison, 

 and those in the work of Young and Bird, present to us portions of 

 denuded stems without sheaths, the articulations of which are de- 

 cidedly swollen, so much so as to cause a considerable increase of the 

 diameter of the stem in that point. 



I take the liberty of calling the attention of the Society to these 

 facts ; for, after having compared these figures with specimens of the 

 Equisetites columnaris from the Continent. 1 am inclined to admit 

 that the plant illustrated by Konig is very different from this latter. 

 If an examination of the specimens from Brora and from Yorkshire 

 confirm what 1 have just stated, I propose to give this species the 

 name of Equi&etitbs Kanigii. 



The materials found in the Oolite of the Venetian Alps give me 

 the opportunity of communicating some observations upon a plant 

 hitherto referred to the genus Olossopteris, thai Lb to say. the Qlos- 

 sopteris Broumiana of Brongniart from the Oolitic (?) beds of India 



and Australia. 



In different localities of the Upper Veronese, I have found isolated 

 leaves, having, by their form and their venation, a striking resemblance 

 to the figures of this species given by Brongniart. But close to these 

 specimens 1 have observed others composed of four leaves (similar in 



