CLADOPHLEBIS. 



137 



Phillips ia the Oxford Museum, believes it to be a fragment of 

 Laecopteris polypodioides ' (Brongn.), but he regards Neuropteris 

 ligata, L. & H., as identical with Claiophhlis dentimlata? The 

 same author considers that Peoopteris insignia of Lindley & Hutton 

 is probably the lower part of a frond of P. denticulata, Brongn. 

 This view is no doubt correct. The drawing in the Fossil Flora 

 (pi. cv.) represents the long falcate pinnules as entire, but a close 

 inspection of the type-specimen (or rather the counterpart, now 

 in the Leckenby Collection, Cambridge, No. 342) reveals the 

 presence of fine teeth on the more perfectly preserved segments. 

 Nathorst has also suggested that the fragments figured by Lindley 

 and Hutton and others as Peoopteris or Phlehopteris undans may 

 belong to a fertile frond of Cladophlebis denticulata. A careful 

 •comparison of several specimens of P. undans with C. denticulata 

 has led me to this conclusion (vide PI. XX. Figs. 3a and Sb). 

 The type-specimen of P. undans of Lindley & Hutton (Scarborough 

 Museum) is associated with portions of Cladophlebis denticulata on 

 the same piece of shale. 



Sohimper and some other authors have also considered Neuropteris 

 ligata of Lindley & Hutton and Cladophlebis denticulata (Brongn.) 

 identical. 



It has already been pointed out, in the description of Todites 

 Williamsoni, that the specimens described by Brongniart as 

 Peoopteris wTiitbiensis appear to be identical with the former 

 species and specifically distinct from the type - specimen of 

 P. whitbiensis as figured by Lindley & Hutton. It would be 

 a hopeless task to attempt an accurate determination of the 

 numerous fronds or fragments of piimse referred by various authors 

 "to Peoopteris whitbiensis, Asplenium whitbiense, etc., but it is at 

 least highly probable that not a few of the fossils thus described 

 are specifically identical with Cladophlebis denticulata, Brongn. 

 Fern fronds of the type described under such names as Cladophlebis 

 whitbiensis, C. Albertsii, Asplenium Roesserti, A. nebbense, etc., 

 liave a worldwide distribution in Mesozoic rooks,^ and we know 

 that leaves of a precisely similar habit are met with in different 



1 Nathorst (SO'), p. 60. 



2 Ibid. p. 58. 



•' Seward (94'), p. 95. 



