286 Systematic Paleontology 



Sagenopteris may be defined in the light of our present knowledge as 

 follows: Stipe long and rather stout;, bearing apically palmately ar- 

 ranged pinnas which are usually four in number. Pinnge variable in out- 

 line, even on the same stipe, asjonmetrical, linear-lanceolate to ovate. 

 Venation reticulate, the meshes more or less elongate. Basally, a stout 

 midrib is present which rapidly becomes attenuated and disappears 

 through the anastomosing branches which it gives off. Fructification in 

 the form of oval or spherical bodies resembling sporocarps ( ?) . 



Eemains which have been referred to Sagenopteris are described by 

 Feistmantel from the late Paleozoic, but these are now regarded as be- 

 longing to Glossopteris. Undoubted specimens of Sagenopteris appear 

 in the Keuper, and the genus is prominent in Ehsetic and Liassic floras, 

 continuing without perceptible abatement through the balance of the 

 Jurassic. There are seven or eight species in the Lower Cretaceous, 

 mostly American, although Sagenopteris Mantelli is also rather wide- 

 spread in Europe. There are three species in the Potomac Group, one 

 of which also occurs in the Shasta of California and the Lower Cre- 

 taceous of the Queen Charlotte Islands. In the Upper Cretaceous a 

 single species is recorded from the Cenomanian of Bohemia, and this 

 reappears according to HoUick, in the Cretaceous of Chappaquidick 

 Island, Massachusetts. A true Marsilea also occurs at this horizon,"^ and 

 from an earlier horizon Schenk ^ describes Marsilidium speciosum. 



Sagenopteeis latifolia Fontaine 



Sagenopteris Idtifolia Fontaine, 1890, Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. xv, 

 1889, p. 148, pi. xxvii, fig. 10. 



Description. — '^ Frond unknown; pinnules apparently subquadrilat- 

 eral, narrowed gradually to the base and rapidly to the summit; mid- 

 nerve in the lower part of the pinnule strong, in the upper 23art dis- 

 solving into branches ; lateral nerves going off very obliquely, branching 

 near the midrib, turning outward, and then by repeated branching and 



' Hollick, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard., vol. iii, 1904, p. 409, pi. Ixxi, figs. 1-3. 

 ' Schenk, Paleeont., Band xix, 1871, p. 225 (23), pi. xxvi (v), figs. 3, 3a. 



