FOSSIL PLANTS. 



AN ENUMERATION OF THE EOSSIL PLANTS FOUND IN THE 

 COAL MEASURES OF ILLINOIS, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF 

 THE NEW SPECIES. 



FIRST DIVISION.— FERN LEAVES. 



Genus Neuropteris, Brgt. Frond pinnately or bitripinnately 

 divided ; pinnules or leaflets cordate at the base, or nearly so, 

 rarely narrowed; entire or cut-toothed, lanceolate, broadly 

 oval, round, kidney-shaped, etc., joined to the rachis by the 

 middle or the base of the medial nerve, which is sometimes 

 elongated into a short pedicel. Nerves oblique arched, either 

 branching from a medial nerve, which disappears in ascending, 

 or flabellate and dichotomous from the base. This definition 

 unites both genera, Neuropteris and Nep7iropteris, Brgt. 



Neuropteris hirsuta, Lsqx. Geol. Rep. of Penn., p. 857, tab. 3, 

 fig. 6, and tab. 4, fig. 1 to 16. This is a very polymorphous 

 species. PI. 35, fig. 8, 9 and 10 of this report, represent large 

 leaflets, placed around the stem of this species at the point of 

 attachment of a primary or secondary pinna. Such leaflets were 

 formerly separated and placed in the genus Nephropteris or 

 Cyclopteris, Brgt. Fig. 6, of the same plate, is one of the 

 smallest leaflets of this species. Fig. 7 shows a peculiar and 



