212 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 
THE GENUS SPHENOPHYLLUM. 
By J. S. NEWBERRY. 
(Read November 11, 1890.) 
Many years ago I found in my father’s coal mines at Talmadge, 
Ohio, a number of specimens of Sphenophyllum erosum, L. & H., 
which showed more of the structure of the plant than was before 
known, viz., the stems, the branches, the leaves of two forms— 
some normally wedge-shaped with serrated extremities, others 
deeply cut, fimbriated or divided into linear segments—and the 
fruit in different stages of development; all these so connected that 
there could be no doubt about their belonging to the same plant. 
At the meeting of the American Association at Cleveland in 
1853, I read a paper upon the structure of certain fossil plants 
found in northern Ohio and among others described these speci- 
mens of Sphenophyllum. Abstracts of this paper, with some figures, 
were published in the Proceedings of the American Association, 
Vol. VII, p..157, and in the Annals of Science Worhmeanc. sip: 
268. 
In speaking of the relations of Asterophyllites and Sphenophyllum, 
I said: ‘‘ The jointed, striated stem, the verticillate arrangement of 
the leaves and similar fructification, have been considered as proofs 
of the close aflinity of these two genera, but the wedge-shaped 
leaves of Sphenophyllum have been regarded as distinctive. Some 
of the species of these genera should, however, be united, as they 
were different portions of the same plant, Asterophyllites being the 
lower part with numerous capillary or linear leaves, while Spheno- 
phyllum was the upper part with broad wedge-shaped leaves. The 
difference of form between the superior and inferior leaves of 
Sphenophyllum would seem to indicate that it was an aquatic plant, 
the submerged leaves being linear, uni-nerved, almost capillary, 
and the emerged leaves broad, with a compound nervation, pre- 
cisely as in many recent aquatic plants.” 
In 1864, M. M. Eug. Coemans and J. J. Kickx, published in the 
Bulletin de L’Academie Royal de Belgique, 2 Serie, ‘Tome XVIII, 
No. 8, a ‘‘ Monographie des Sphenophyllum d’Europe,” in which 
