SESSIONAL PAPER No 

 1430 



REPORT OF TEE CHIEF ASTRONOMER 

 25a 



817 



Cladophlebis skagitensis, n. sp. 



This species is represented by several fragments of fronds, 

 the largest of which is 5-5 cm. long and 15 cm. broad in its 

 complete state, but none of the fragments are altogether satisfactory 

 for purposes of description. The following description has been 

 obtained : — 



Pinnules distinct, somewhat falcate, 6 mm. broad at the base and 

 7 mm. long, inserted on a rachis 1-5 mm. broad, the apex acute. 



During the past year I have had occasion to recognize several 



species of Cladophlebis from the Kootanie of the Crowsnest Coal 

 Fields at Michel Station, and from the Lower Cretaceous of the 

 Nordenskiold river, but the present specimen is not comparable 

 with any of them (1). In 1893 Sir William Dawson recorded a 

 fern from the Upper Cretaceous of Vancouver island, under the 

 name of Cladophlebis Columbiana, but there is no ground for com- 

 parison here, for the reason that the plant so named can hardly 

 be regarded as a Cladophlebis at all, and upon this point Sir Wil- 

 liam Dawson himself expressed doubt (12). A very close resemblance is to be 

 noted between this plant and Fontaine's C. virginiensis (19). The chief, and 

 perhaps the only difference, is the one of size, and it may be that they should 

 be regarded as identical, but for the present it seems better to adopt a provisional 

 name for the British Columbia specimen, which is, therefore, called C. skagi- 

 tensis. 



Fig. 2. 

 Cladophlebis 

 skagitensis, 

 n. sp. x 1/1. 



1430 



Number 



1430 



ASPIDIUM FREDERICKSBURGENSE, Font. 



embraces numerous fragments of a bi-pinnate frond, showing 



only a portion of the termination of the pinna in each case. The form of the 

 pinnules varies somewhat greatly and presents numerous gradations between 

 the two extremes precisly as in Fontaine's Aspidium fredericksburgense, which 

 this plant undoubtedly is. This species, originally described by Fontaine from 

 the Potomac Formation at Fredericksburg, Virginia (19), has since then been 

 recognized by Dawson (5) in the early Cretaceous at Anthracite, B.C. It will 

 be readily recognized that so strongly defined a Lower Cretaceous type as this is, 

 must have special value in determining the horizon in which it may be found. 



