346 FILICALES [CH. 



fig. 258 is very similar to some Indian fossils figured by Feist- 

 mantel as Asplenites macrocarpus^, which are probably identical 

 with Pecopteris australis Morris ^ a fern that is indistinguishable 

 from Cladophlebis denticulata. Kenault' figured a fertile speci- 

 men of the Australian fossil as Todea australis, which agrees 

 very closely with that shown in fig. 258, and the sporangia 

 figured by the French author are of the Osmundaceous type. 

 Another example of a fertile specimen is afforded by a Rhaetic 

 fern from Franconia, Asplenites ottonis, which is probably 

 identical with A lethopteris Roesserti Presl [= Cladophlebis 

 (Todites) Roesserti], a plant closely resembling Cladophlebis 

 denticulata. Another argument in favour of including C. denti- 

 culata. in the Osmundaceae is supplied by the association of 

 pinnae of this type with the petrified stem of Osmundites 

 Dunlopi recorded by Kidston and Gwynne-Vaughan. 



Schizaeaceae. 



Evidence bearing on the existence of this family in Car- 

 boniferous floras is by no means decisive. The generic name 

 Aneimites proposed by Dawson' for some Devonian Canadian 

 plants resembling species of the recent genus Aneimia, and 

 adopted by White ° for a species from the Potsville beds of 

 Virginia, is misleading. The Canadian plants give no indica- 

 tion of the nature of the reproductive organs, and the fronds 

 described by White are, as he shows, those of a Pteridosperm 

 and bore seeds. 



An examination of the suspiciously diagrammatic drawings 

 published by Corda^ of the small fertile pinnules of a Car- 

 boniferous fern from Bojiemia, which he named Senftenbergia 

 elegans, leads us to conclude that the sporangia are almost 

 certainly those of a Schizaeaceous species. The small linear 

 pinnules bear two rows of sessile sporangia, singly as in recent 

 Schizaeaceae and not in sori, characterised by 4 — 5 rows of 

 regular annular cells (fig. 270, A) surrounding the apex. It 

 has already been pointed out that the apical annulus of recent 



' Feistmantel (77) Pis. xxxvi. xxxvii. 



2 Morris (45) PI. vii. ^ Eeuault (83) p. 81, PI. xi. 



^ Dawson (61). » White (04). « Corda (45) A. PI. Lvn. 



