BUNBURY ON TIlE COAL FORMATION OF CAPE BRETON. 427 



10. Odontopteris subcuneata (n. sp.). 



Spec. Char. 0. pinnulis remotis suboppositis decurrentibus oblique obovato-cune- 

 atis subrecurvis apice rotundatis : terminali majore ovata ; rachi lata marginata ; 

 venis tenuissimis arcuatis dichotomis. 



An imperfect specimen, but rather remarkable in its characters, 

 and not agreeing with anything that I can find in books. It appears 

 to be the extremity of a frond: the leaflets are rather distantly 

 placed, opposite, nearly wedge-shaped, somewhat recurved, dilated 

 and obliquely rounded off at the end, somewhat contracted towards 

 the base, but not tapering into a petiole, decurrent along the stalk, 

 which is flat, striated and bordered ; the terminal leaflet is much 

 broader, and seems to have been of a roundish-ovate form, but the 

 end of it is broken off. The leaflets have no midrib ; the veins are 

 numerous and fine, repeatedly forked, and resemble those of a Neu- 

 ropteris, except that they spring from the base of the leaflet or from 

 the main stalk. 



Different parts of the frond of the same Fern are often so unlike, 

 that it may perhaps be rash to characterize a species from such a 

 fragment as this ; nevertheless, as it seems different from anything 

 hitherto described, it is convenient to give it a name. Odontopteris 

 ohtiisa^^ which comes nearest to it, has the leaflets much more 

 crowded, not at all recurved, nor contracted towards the base. 



11. Dictyopteris obliqtja (n. sp.). 



Spec. Char. D. pinnulis oblongis obtusissimis subfalcatis, basi oblique subcordatis ; 

 costa tenuissima evanida ; venis prorainulis. 



This is the Fern with reticulated veins, mentioned in Mr. Ly ell's 

 * Travels in North Americaf as the type of a new genus, bearing the 

 same relation to the Lonchopteris of Brongniart, as Neiiropteris to 

 Pecopteris. I have not access to Gutbier's work, in which, as it 

 appears, the genus Dictyopteris was established, but from the brief 

 character of that genus given in linger' s ' Synopsis' (p. 58), it would 

 seem that our plant must belong to it. Possibly it may even be 

 identical with the one species there noticed (D. Brongniartii, Gutb.), 

 but as I have seen neither description nor figure of that plant, I am 

 obliged to describe the one before us as new. This appears to be not 

 very uncommon in the Sydney coal-field ; but I have seen nothing like 

 it from other parts of America, nor in the European collections to 

 which I have had access. 



The leaflets, in all the specimens I have seen, occur detached, so as 

 to give no idea of the general form of the frond. They are oblong, 

 from half an inch to nearly an inch in length, very obtuse, slightly 

 convex, usually more or less curved, and sometimes in a remarkable 

 degree ; at the base they are oblique and slightly cordate, and evi- 

 dently were attached to the stalk at one point only, as in Neuropteris. 

 The midrib is very faint, often obsolete, and always vanishing far below 

 the extremity of the leaflet ; the lateral veins prominent and strongly 



* Brongn. Veg. Foss. 255. t. 78. f. 4. t Vol. ii. p. 202. 



VOL. III. — PART I. 2 G 



