424 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Dr. Lindley* and Prof. Goeppert have noticed tlie small, roimdisli 

 leaflets wMch are commonly found scattered among those of the more 

 normal form of this species ; but neither of them appears to have 

 actually seen the relative position and connexion of the two kinds of 

 leaflets ; and Goeppert seems uncertain whether they belong to the 

 same plant. Some of Mr. Brown's Cape Breton specimens are the 

 first in which I have seen the small, round or reniform leaflets attached 

 to the base of the large and long ones, on each side, exactly in the same 

 way as in the upper part of the frond of Neuropteris heterophylla. 

 The large leaflets are not however constantly accompanied by the 

 small round ones, for in another specimen we find one of them attached 

 immediately to a stout stalk without any such appendage. Sometimes 

 they are lobed near their base, a variation which may also be frequently 

 observed in the upper pinnules of N, heterophylla. To that species 

 indeed the cordata was probably very similar in the general form 

 and composition of its frond, though so much superior to it in' size. 



In some of the Cape Breton specimens the surface of the leaflets is 

 beset with small bodies, which have all the appearance of strong 

 hairs, rather thinly scattered, originating apparently from the veins, 

 and lying in various directions. These may be seen also on some of 

 the specimens from Lebotv/ood, in the Society's museum, but they 

 are not mentioned by any author that I know of. As the leaflets on 

 which they occur do not differ in any other respect whatever from 

 the rest, I do not suppose them to indicate a specific difference. 



Appearances somewhat resembling fructification are visible on one 

 of the specimens sent me by Mr. Brown, but I am inclined to think 

 that they may have been produced by a disease of the parenchyma, 

 or a parasitical fungus. They are small oval pits, with raised or 

 thickened edges, and are placed mostly in groups, side by side, near 

 the midrib ; but they appear to me to be placed between the veins, 

 not on them, and to be somewhat too irregular for spots of fructi- 

 fication. 



2. Neuropteris cordata (var. angustifolid) . 

 (N. angustifolia, Brongn. Feg. Foss. 231. t. 64. f. 3, 4.) 



Agrees sufficiently well with Brongniart's figure and description, 

 but I believe it to be merely a variety of N. cordata. The veins 

 indeed are sometimes finer and closer than is usual in that species, 

 but in other specimens, with very narrow leaflets, they are nearly as 

 strong as in the ordinary state of the plant. The base of the leaflets 

 varies very much in different specimens of the broad-leaved or nor- 

 mal form of N. cordata, and often is scarcely at all heart-shaped ; not 

 unfrequently also it is oblique. I have little doubt that Neuropteris 

 cordata, angustifolia, acutifolia, and Scheuchzeri of Brongniart, are 

 all of them forms of one species. 



In the narrow-leaved variety, as well as in the other, the small 

 round leaflets occur attached to the base of the larger, as is very well 

 seen in one of the specimens from Cape Breton. 



* Fossil Flora, vol. i. p. 120. - 



