666 PROFESSOR A. C. SEWARD ON 



gleichenoides Old. and Morr.;* some of the species of Gleichenites t recorded by 

 Velenovsky from Lower Cretaceous rocks of Bohemia ; the Lower Jurassic fern 

 described by Baciborski from Poland as Gleichenites Rostafinshii,\ as well as other 

 species. In the absence of venation-characters it would be easy to confuse small pieces 

 of Weichselia Mantelli with Gleichenites ; fragments of Weichselia from the Wealden 

 beds of Bernissart in Belgium, § apart from the reticulate venation, bear a very close 

 resemblance to Gleichenites. The plant described by Fontaine from the Lower 

 Cretaceous Shasta formation of California as ? Gleichenia Gilbert Tho7npsoni\\ is 

 probably part of a Weichselia frond. 



4. Cyatheacese (?). 



Coniopteris, Brongniart. 



Coniopteris hymenophylloides (Brongniart). (PI. III. figs. 44-46A ; 



PL VIII., photo. 27.) 

 1828. Brongniart, Hist. veg. foss., p. 189, pi. lvi. fig. 4. 



The small pieces of leaves of the Sphenopteris type obtained from the Sutherland 

 rocks do not afford very decisive evidence as to their affinity, but, with the exception 

 of the specimen represented in PL VIII., fig. 28, they agree closely with Brongniart's 

 species Coniopteris hymenophylloides. The rachis is winged and the pinnules vary 

 slightly in the degree of dissection of the lamina. The fragment shown in fig. 46A, 

 PL III., slightly enlarged, is characterised by the narrow form and distally expanded 

 end of some of the segments, features which suggest comparison with the more complete 

 fertile examples of the species from other localities. Coniopteris hymenophylloides is 

 an exceedingly abundant Jurassic fern which has been described under various generic 

 names, Thyrsopteris, Dichsonia, Sphenopteris, etc. It is recorded from such widely 

 separated regions as the Antarctic and Arctic regions, California and Japan. 



Coniopteris arguta (Lindley and Hutton). (PL IV. figs. 58, 59 ; PL VIII. photo. 31.) 



1834. Neuropteris arguta, Lindley and Hutton, Foss. Flor., pi. cv. 



1900. Coniopteris arguta, Seward, Jurassic Flor., vol. i. p. 115, pi. xvi. figs. 3, 3a, pi. xvii. figs. 4, 5. 



The habit of this fern is most clearly seen in the large but faint impression shown in 

 fig. 58. A broad rachis, 15 cm. long, gives off alternate short linear-acuminate pinnae 

 bearing oblique linear pinnules with apparently entire margins and rather blunt apices. 

 A smaller specimen is reproduced in photo. 31, PL VIII. ; the venation is very obscure, 

 a few traces of secondary veins being visible. The broader pinna shown in fig. 59, which 

 agrees in shape with the smaller pinnae on other specimens, bears longer-lobed pinnules. 

 In the absence of fertile pinnules it is impossible to determine the affinity of these 



* Oldham and Morris (63), pi. xxv. t Velenovsky (85), pi. iii. 



X Raciborski (94), pi. xiii. figs. 15-21. § Seward (OO 3 ). || Ward (05), p. 232. 



