40 
In studying a collection of plants from the Kootenay at Great Falls, 
Montana, Fontaine established two species of the fern genus Aspidium 
Swartz, 1800 (antedated by Dryopteris Adanson, 1763). These were both 
represented by fertile and sterile material, and as was Fontaine's practice 
in very many instances, were based upon different parts of the large and 
variable fronds of a single botanical species. In the account of the Lower 
Cretaceous flora of Maryland 1 the writer showed that most, if not all, of 
Fontaine's supposed species of Aspidium (Dryopertis) were simply frag- 
ments of fruiting specimens of the genus Cladophlebis. It seems proper, 
therefore, to transfer the present species to that genus. It seems probable 
that this species represents a previously described wide-ranging species, 
for example, the terminal fertile pinnse so common in the Lower Blairmore 
is very close to Cladophlebis browniana (Dunker) Seward, which has already 
been recorded from the Kootenay of Montana and British Columbia, and 
it may also be compared with Cladophlebis parva Fontaine. The sterile 
specimens are close to Cladophlebis distans Fontaine. The number of 
nominal species of Cladophlebis in the literature clearly outruns their 
variety in nature, and it may as well be recognized that it is altogether 
impossible to obtain conclusive results with fragmentary material like so 
much of the plant-bearing shales in the disturbed region of Crowsnest 
pass. What I consider to represent the present species is not uncommon 
in both the Kootenay and Lower Blairmore. 
A curious nomenclatorial tangle involves the second name in the 
above synonymy. Aspidium monocarpum Fontaine was transferred to 
the genus Dryopteris by Knowlton 2 in 1898. A fern specimen from the 
Jurassic of Oregon was wrongly identified under this name by Fontaine 3 
in 1900, and when the Oregon Jurassic flora was finally elaborated this 
last form was transferred to Dicksonia oregonensis 4 * . The last is probably 
not a Dicksonia and might perhaps better be referred to the genus Coni- 
opteris. It is clearly different from the present Kootenay-Lower Blair- 
more species, but in the mix up of names just enumerated the latter appears 
to have been lost sight of, and it is not included in Knowlton 's recent “Cata- 
logue of Fossil Plants” 6 . 
Occurrence. Lower Blairmore, localities CH3 (?), CH7 (?), DB1 (abund- 
ant). Kootenay; localities CK1, CN1, CN2, COl, CQ4, DG1, 
DH1, and DH2. 
Cladophlebis parva Fontaine 
Cladophlebis parva Fontaine, U.S. Geol. Surv., Mon. 15, p. 73, PI. 4, fig. 7; 
PI. 6, figs. 1-3 (1890); in Ward, 19th Ann. Kept., U.S. Geol. Surv., 
pt. 2, p. 657, PI. 160, fig. 18 (1899); Mon. 48, pp. 225, 280, 510, 538, 
PL 65, figs. 5-8 (1906). 
Berry, Lower Cretaceous, p. 250, PI. 28, figs. 1,2; PL 30; Pl. 31 (1911). 
This species includes what Fontaine called Cladophlebis inclinata , 
Cladophlebis sp., Aspidium heterophyllum, and Dryopteris heterophylla. 
1 Berry. E. W.: Lower Cretaceous; Md. Geol. Surv., pp. 239-269 (1911). 
2 Knowlton, F, H,: U.S. Geol. Surv., Bull, 152, p. 92 (1898). 
* In Ward, L. F.: 20tli Ann. Kept., U.S. Geol. Surv., pt. 2, p. 369 (1900). 
* In Ward, L. F,: U.S. Geol. Surv,, Mon, 48, p. 65, PI. 6, figs. 3-9 (1905). 
* Knowlton, F. H.: U.S. Geol. Surv., Bull. 696 (1919). 
