384 MR ROBERT KIDSTON ON THE FOSSIL FLORA OF THE 



The fruit has been figured and described by Sterzel,* and I am indebted to 

 Mr E. AVilson, Clifton, for a small fruiting specimen which he collected at 

 Welton. This example shows the upper surface of the frond. The sori are 

 scattered on the pinnules in an irregular manner, and appear to have been 

 placed in little pockets, which produce on the upper surface of the pinnules a 

 corresponding small circular wart-like elevation, — such as is seen in some 

 recent genera of ferns. 



Localities: — Eadstock; Kilmersdon Colliery; Upper Conygre Pit ; Welton. 



Alethopteris, Sternberg, Vers, einer geol. botan. Darstettung d. Flora 

 d. Vorwelt, i. fasc. iv. p. xxi., 1820. 



Alethopteris lonchitica, Schlotheim, sp. 



Alethopteris lonchitica, Schirnper, Traite d. paleont. veget, vol. i. p. 554. 



Alethopteris lonchitidis, Sternb., Vers,, i. fasc. iv. p. xxi,; Vers., ii. p. 142. 



Pecopteris lonchitica, Brongt., Hist. d. veget. foss., p. 275, pi. lxxxiv. 



Pecopderis heterophylla, L. & H, Fossil Flora, vol. i. pi. xxxviii. 



Pecopteris Mantelli, Brongt., Hist. d. veget. foss., p. 278, pi. lxxxiii. 



Pecopteris Mantelli, L. & H., Fossil Flora, vol. ii. pi. cxlv. 



Alethopteris Mantelli, Zeiller, Veget. foss. du terr. houil., p. 74, pi. clxiii. figs. 3, 4. 



Pecopteris urophylla, Brongt., Hist. d. veget. foss., p. 290, pi. lxxxvi. 



Filicites lonchiticus, Schlotheim, Flora d. Vorwelt, p. 55, pi. xi. fig. 22. 



Remarks. — On only two occasions have I collected Aleth. lonchitica in the 

 Eadstock Series. This species is extremely common in the Lower Coal 

 Measures, less plentiful in the Middle Coal Measures, where Aleth. Serlii begins 

 to appear, and extremely rare in the Upper Coal Measures, where Aleth. Serlii 

 becomes very abundant. 



Aleth. lonchitica, Schl., sp., is very variable in the form and size of the 

 pinnules, and there appears to be no definite line of demarcation between the 

 typical form and Aleth. Mantelli, Aleth. heterophylla, and Aleth. urophylla, 

 Aleth. heterophylla and Aleth. urophylla appear to represent the same form of 

 the plant. 



In Aleth. Mantelli the pinnules are longer and narrower. On the lower 

 corner of the slab containing the type specimen of Aleth. heterophylla figured 

 by Lindlev & Hutton occurs a fragment of Aleth. Mantelli; and on the upper 

 corner of the type specimen of Aleth, Mantelli, Brongt., occurs a specimen of 

 Aleth. heterophylla I 



After examining many specimens of the species, I have been led to the con- 

 clusion that the plants mentioned in the synonymy given here are only different 

 forms of one fern — possibly in some cases even different portions of the same 

 frond ; and to the synonyms mentioned above I believe others might be added. 



Localities : — Radstock ; Braysdown Colliery. 



* Botanisches Centralblatt and Zeitsch. d. dent. geol. Gesell. 



