322 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Lepidodendron. PL 19, Jig. 1. 



. From the grey argillaceous beds above the coarser 

 grit. The characters aflixeil to this plant by Sternberg, 

 in referring to Lepidodendron phlegmaria, book 2, p. 

 29, and pi. 17; fig. 1, dispose us to place this species 

 among that order of plants, although we have never seen 

 it occurring of a greater size than about double that 

 here figured. 



In the more perfect specimens, the arrangement of 

 the surrounding leaves, the rudiments or imperfect traces 

 of scales, and the general configuration of the branches, 

 bear resemblance to the genus Lepidodendron. Our 

 figure is only so much more minute than those of Stern- 

 berg. In all cases the upper extremities of the branches 

 are covered with sharply pointed leaves, whilst in the 

 lower and older stems they have fallen off, as is common 

 with these plants. 



, We had prepared other illustrations of this fossil, as 

 well as a more splendid specimen of the branching Sphe- 

 nopteris corresponding to fig. 3, but those we have 

 sketched are sufiiciently characteristic. 



Sphenopteris. PI. 19, fig. 3. 



The beautiful fossil vegetable, a fragment of which is 

 here represented, was referred to the genus Sphenopteris 

 with some hesitation : because in our specimen the ge- 

 neric characters of the leaves were obscure ; and from 

 their extreme delicacy of outline, showed, in the young 

 pinnules, even when examined through a microscope, in 

 their oval and lanceolate forms and in the apparent 

 absence of nervures, more resemblance to those of the 

 genus Pachypteris than to the lobated pinnules insepa- 

 rable from Sphenopteris. The acquisition of some addi- 

 tional specimens, from the same locality, has assisted in 

 elucidating the structure of these plants, and has removed 



