428 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



marked, forming a regular and beautiful network witli small meshes 

 wMcli are longest and narrowest near the middle of the leaflet 

 becoming shorter and rounder towards the margins. 



The Lonchopteris of Brongniart, and Woodwardites of Goeppert, 

 differ from this in having their leaflets confluent at the base, and in 

 the presence of a strong midrib which reaches to the point of each 

 leaflet or lobe. 



12. Pecopteris longifolia ? {Bi'ongn. Veg.Foss. 273. t. 83. f. 2?) 



I think that the specimens from Cape Breton (which however are 

 very imperfect) belong rather to this species than to its near ally the 

 P. emarginata (I)i])lazites emarginatus, Goepp.), although in som^e 

 instances the lower secondary veins appear to anastomose, as in the 

 latter ; more commonly they run directly to the margin, and both 

 appearances are observable in the very same leaflet. This plant has 

 narrower leaflets than the P. emarginata from Frostburg, (which I 

 described in a paper read before the Society last December,) and they 

 are also less convex, and apparently of a thinner substance. I do 

 not feel at all sure however that it is a distinct species. There is no 

 appearance of fructification. 



13. Pecopteris t^niopteroides (n. gp.). 



Spec. Char. P. pinnulis alternis confertis subcontiguis sessilibus oblongo-ligulatis 

 plaiiis integerrimis, apice rotundatis ; costa valida sub apicera evanescente ; venis 

 crebris parallelis subperpendicularibus bis furcatis. 



A small fragment, not suflicient to establish satisfactorily the aflini- 

 ties of the plant, but yet so evidently diiferent from all the species 

 described by Brongniart and by Goeppert, and exhibiting its venation 

 so perfectly, that I have thought it worth describing. It occurs in 

 company with Asterophyllites eqiiisetiformis. There is nothing to 

 show whether the frond was once or tv/ice pinnated. The portion 

 that remains of the stalk is slender, but of a very rigid appearance, 

 nearly straight, somewhat angular, and quite smooth. Leaflets alter- 

 nate, pretty closely set, broadly strap-shaped, flat, from fths to Jths of 

 an inch in length, and rather more than ^th of an inch broad, rounded 

 at the end, very entire at the edges, which appear to be slightly thick- 

 ened ; they are scarcely decurrent or dilated at the base. Midrib 

 remarkably thick, but not reaching quite to the extremity. Veins 

 strong, very numerous, close and parallel (resembling those of a 

 Tisniopteris) , nearly at right angles to the midrib, straight or very 

 slightly curved ; they are generally divided at the base or near it into 

 two branches, and either one or both of these again forked above the 

 middle. 



This well-marked Fern appears to be referable to Brongniart' s first 

 section (JPteroides) of Pecopteris, which constitutes the genus Ale- 

 thopteris of Sternberg ; at least it has the venation, if not entirely the 

 habit of that group. Among recent plants it bears a general resem- 

 blance to several species of Blechjimn and Lomaria as well as of 

 Pteris ; and, as well as one can conjecture wdthout a knowledge of 

 the fructification, it may have belonged to any one of those genera. 



