NO. 8.] 



DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 



9 



Sphenopteris (Adiantites) sp. d. 



PI. I. figs. 5, 6 and (magnified) 47, 48. 



Of this species three specimens are here represented, the one (wood-cut 

 fig. 1) I only received after the plates were printed. As is seen from the 

 drawings, the leaves are constructed as in the Adiantum, the oblique wedge- 

 shaped leaflets being devoid of any distinct midrib and attached to the rachis 

 by their posterior part. The anterior margin is more or less uneven. The 

 figures will speak for themselves. 



The species is probably new, in so far as can 

 be judged from this incomplete material. Of the spe- 

 cies previously described, it somewhat resembles Adi- 

 antites Nympharufn Heer from Bureja in Amur, 

 (Flora foss. arctica, vol. 4), the pinnules of which 

 are however considerably larger. 



Newton and Teall ^ have described two specimens 

 from Cape Flora, bringing them under Thyrsopteris , 



though at the same time they draw attention to their 

 Fig. 1. Sphenopteris [Adi- " 



anUtes) sp. d. in natu- similarity to Adiantites amurensis Heer. It seems 



'"liuS Ta'^giSifie/'"' to me that the likeness to Adiantites Nympharum 



is still greater, indeed, it may not be altogether impossible that they belong 



to this species. Whether the form described above should be considered as 



an earlier stage of development of the species described by Newton and Teall 



cannot be determined from the material at hand. 



1 'Notes on a collection of Rocks and Fossils from Franz Josef Land', etc. Quarterly 



Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. 53, p. 477. 



2 



