Schizaeaceae from Eastern North America . 195 
Schizaea. They are of large size, averaging about mm * in diameter. 
The tetrad scars are small but well marked, but show no protuberances 
or ornaments at the outer angles. The walls are thick and strongly striated, 
another feature of the modern Schizaeaceae, especially of the genus 
Aneimia , and well shown in the camera lucida drawings of the fossil spores 
reproduced on PL XII, Fig. 2. The spore contents are for the most part 
dissipated, only the yellowish exine remaining, and the walls are frequently 
collapsed, so that with a low power they appear cross-lined because of their 
juxtaposition. 
Since only the spores are preserved, the morphology of these fructifi- 
cations is conjectural. They have the appearance of simple fusiform 
sporangia of gigantic size, but it is believed that they represent a large 
number of pairs of more or less confluent, or at least close packed, 
sporangia. 
The specimens are found in a partially llthified sandy clay, almost 
an argillaceous sand, but the sand is fine-grained, so that the fossils are 
well preserved, as indicated by the specimen photographed. In this speci- 
men the spores were evidently nearly mature, as indicated by their size and 
configuration. None seen are in tetrads, and yet the sporangia could 
hardly have dehisced before fossilization, since each tiny rock cavity which 
represents these fructifications is packed with the spores. In some of the 
impressions there are faint transverse lines on the matrix, as if they marked 
the line of demarcation between successive pairs of sporangia, and in one 
case the vein upon which the fructification was borne can be traced the 
entire length of the fructification, clearly indicating that it is not a gigantic 
simple sporangium, but an aggregate of sporangia comparable to that of 
the modern genus Schizaea . 
With regard to the botanical affinity of this species, the writer’s con- 
victions are indicated in the generic name. No modern group of ferns 
fulfils the conditions as does the family Schizaeaceae. The fossil fern is 
identical with various modern tropical members of this family in vegetative 
habit, no other modern ferns known to the writer resembling it in the 
character of the fronds except the genus Rhipidopteris of the Polypodiaceae, 
which has a quite different habit and type of fructification. The venation 
is closely similar to Schizaea. The fructifications are similarly borne and 
the spores are similar in form and markings to the closely allied modern 
species of Lygodium and Aneimia. It is believed that the combination of 
close agreement in vegetative characters with a similar close agreement in 
fructification characters, in so far as they are determinable from the nature 
of the material, justifies the reference of these ferns to the family Schizae- 
aceae, a family which on theoretical grounds we would expect to find 
represented in the lower Cretaceous. Whether the detailed organization 
of the fructifications conforms to that which obtains in the modern members 
