Maryland Geological Survey 261 



Kegarding the botanical relations of the following forms, there is 

 little doubt of their being included with propriety in the Polypodiaceae, 

 or in that assemblage of ferns which represented this family in Lower 

 Cretaceous time. 



Dryopterttes macrocarpa (Fontaine) 



Aspidium macrocarpum Fontaine, 1890, Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. xv, 



1889, p. 103, pi. xvii, fig. 2. 

 Dryopteris macrocarpa Knowlton, 1898, Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 152, 



p. 92. 



Description. — "Sterile frond not seen; fertile frond showing only 

 a skeleton imprint; principal rachis stout and rigid; plant most prob- 

 ably arborescent; rachis of the ultimate pinnas stout and rigid; shape 

 and dimensions of the pinnules not disclosed ; apparently large, elongate- 

 oblong, attached by the entire base, alternate; midnerve rather slender, 

 straight; lateral nerves simple, and bearing at their summits the sori 

 arranged in a row on each side of the midrib. The sori are very large, 

 reniform in shape, and seem to have been situated near the margin of the 

 pinnules. Under a good lens the sporangia may be seen arranged often 

 in a band near the margin of the sori." — Fontaine, 1890. 



ISTo new material identical with this type has been subsequently col- 

 lected. The fern seems to have been a large one and the type material is 

 too poorly preserved to justify the description of the shape of the sorus 

 or the arrangement of the sporangia. It is very probable that this form 

 is identical with one or the other of the fertile forms referred by the 

 writer to Cladophlehis distans Fontaine, Cladophlehis parva Fontaine, 

 and Cladophlehis Albertsii (Dunker) Brongniart, the latter being an 

 especially probable affinity. 



Occurrence. — Patuxent Formation. Dutch Gap, Virginia. 



Collection. — ^U. S. ISTational Museum, 



Dryopterites pinnatifida (Fontaine) 



Aspidium pinnatifldum Fontaine, 1890, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. xv, 1889, 



p. 101, pi. xxi, fig. 15. 

 Dryopteris pinnatifida Knowlton, 1898, Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 152, 



p. 92. 



