RAVENHEAD COLLECTION IN THE BROWN FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM. 407 



the terminal lobe of the pinnule usually consists of two blunt equal lobes separated by a 

 sinus. The pinnules become confluent on the upper pinnae, and on the upper portion of 

 the lower pinnse. Veins distinct, flexuous. 



Remarks. — This description is founded on the specimen figured here, — one of Mr 

 Maerat's types, — and on another specimen in my collection from the Middle Coal 

 Measures, Claycross, Derbyshire, given me by Dr Pegler, Stonebroom. 



Fig. 3 shows portion of a pinna, probably from the basal part of a frond. My 

 Claycross specimen seems to show a portion of a frond near the apex. In that figured 

 the pinnules are free, and attached to a broad winged rachis ; in the Claycross example 

 the pinnules are confluent on the greater number of the pinnse, like those on the apical 

 portion of the pinna given at 3b. The venation is firm and distinct, and when the limb 

 of the pinnule has been subjected to any decay before fossilisation, little more than the 

 veins are preserved. 



This species is closely related to Sphenopteris gracilis, Brongt.,* from Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne, especially as figured by ZEiLLER,t and will likely require to be united with it, but 

 as probably at an early date I may have further facilities for examining additional 

 specimens, I meantime retain Mr Marrat's name for the Ravenhead fern, though 

 strongly of opinion that the plant should be referred to Sphenopteris {Renaultia) 

 gracilis, Brongt. 



I have hitherto been unable to ascertain to which species Brongntart's Sphenopteris 

 gracilis really referred, and it is only since seeing M. Zeiller's figures that it has 

 occurred to me that the Sphenopteris Footneri, Marrat. is most probably the Sphen. 

 gracilis of Brongniart. 



Sphenopteris spinosa, Goppert. 



Sphenopteris spinosa, Gbpp., Gatt. d. foss. Pflanzen, Lief 3-4, p. 70, pi. xii. 



Sphenopteris spinosa, Zeiller, Flore foss. d. bassin houill. d. Valenciennes, p. 135, pi. xv. figs. 1-3. 



Remarks. — The specimens are all very fragmentary. 



Sphenopteris furcata, Brongt. 



Sphenopteris furcata, Brongt., Hist. d. veget. foss., p. 179, pi. xlix. figs. 4, 5. 

 Diplothmema furcatum, Stur, Carbon Flora, vol. i. p. 299, pi. xxviii. figs. 2, 3. 



Diplothmema furcatum, Zeiller, Flore foss. d. bassin houill. d. Valenciennes, p. 147, pi. iv. figs. 5, 6; pi. 

 v. fig. 4. 



Spenopteris multifida, Lindley & Hutton. 



Sphenopteris midtifida, L. & H., Fossil Flora, vol. ii. pi. cxxiii. 



Remarks. — In the Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, vol. xl. p. 594, and in my Catalogue 

 of Palaeozoic Plants, p. 65, I have united this species with Urnatopteris tenella, Brongt., 



* Hist. d. ve'ge't. foss., p. 197, pi. liv. fig. 2. 



t Flore foss. d. bassin houill. d. Valenciennes, p. 94, pi. iv. figs. 2, 3. 



VOL. XXXV. PART II. (NO. 10). 3 Y 



