80 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 28, 



Fig. I, b. A portion of a medullary ray, from the same specimen. Magnified 

 ten diameters. 



Fig. 2. Transverse section of the woody cylinder and centre of Stigmaria ficoides, 

 showing the large vessels (?) or utricles in the axis. Natural size. 



Fig. 3. Longitudinal view of the large vessels (?) or utricles in the axis of Stig- 

 maria ficoides. Natural size. 



Fig. 4. Transverse section of the centre of a rootlet of Stigmaria ficoides, show- 

 ing the ring of cellular tissue and the vascular bundle in the middle. 

 Magnified ninety diameters. 



Fig. 5. Section, partly transverse and partly longitudinal, showing the ring of 

 cellular tissue and the transversely rayed vessels or utricles of the 

 vascular bundles. Magnified ninety diameters. 



6. On a Species ofEwBiisfrom the Coal-Measubes of Worcestehshire. 

 By John Morris, F.G.S. 



Ferns with reticulate venation are comparatively rare in the Coal- 

 measures, at least in this country, where no species having that 

 character has, I believe, been hitherto recorded. Two or three 

 pieces of micaceous sandstone, recently obtained by Mr. G. Roberts 

 of Eidderminster, contain portions of fronds showing distinctly a 

 loose reticulation or anastomosing venation. They were obtained 

 by him from a shaly sandstone of the Coal-measures near Bewdley, 

 and are associated with Pecopteris Serlii, P. lonchitica, P. oreopteridis, 

 a form allied to Sphenopteris latifolia, Lycopodites, and Noegge- 

 rathia (?). 



The genera which have been established for the reception of those 

 fossil forms of the Coal-measures, having a more or less reticulate 

 or anastomosing venation*, are Lonchopteris, Woodwardites, and 

 Dictyopteris. 



Lonchopteris, Brongniart, 1827. 



Frond bipinnate or many times pinnatifid ; pinnulae more or less 

 adherent at their base, traversed by a midrib ; secondary veins re- 

 ticulate. 



This genus has the general form of Pecopteris, but is readily di- 

 stinguished from it by the regular reticulated arrangement of the 

 secondary veins. Five species are recorded, three belonging to the 

 Coal-measures — L. 5ma(Brongn.),Z. rttp^osa (Brongn.), and L. ano- 

 mala (Gopp.) from the coal-schist of Zwickau ; the other two species 

 have been found in the Oolitic {L. Huttonii) and Wealden (X. Man- 

 telli) strata of England : the latter also occurs in the lower green- 

 sand of the Isle of Wight. Another species has recently been added 

 to this genus, — the L. Germari, Giebel (Zeitschrift fiir die gesamm- 

 ten Naturwissenschaften, 1857, vol. x. p. 301, pi. 1), from the coal 



* The Pecopteris Defrancii, Brongn. (Hist. Veg. Foss. p. 325), has the second- 

 ary veins sometimes anastomosed (pi. 112. f. 1). This species is considered by 

 Brongniart to be the type of the section Neuropteroides of the genus Pe- 

 copteris. The Neuropteris conferta, Sternb., has a lax venation, the secondary 

 veins occasionally presenting the appearance of anastomosing. (G-oppert, 'Die 

 Gattungen der fossilen Pflanzen,' Lief. 5 und 6. t. 10. f. 2, 3.) 



