FOSSIL PLANTS. 
421 
Genus SPHENOPHYLLUM, Brongt. / 
/,m 1 t 
Ji.Jj&k ? 
Spenopiiyllum cornutum, Sp. nov. 
PI. xix, fig. 1 to 5. 
/ 
fr? 71 Cc t 'r, / y 7 <5V 
IS// / 
Main stein round, half an inch broad, articulate at equal 
distances (about one inch), inflated at the nocli or points of in¬ 
sertion of the whorls of leaves, smooth but obscurely ribbed 
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9 / c 
in the length, divided about at right angles by long straight 
branches bearing whorls of five or six leaflets, joined at the 
base ; leaflets equal, fan-like in outline, broadly cuneiform to the 
base, divided from below the middle into seven to nine linear, 
pointed, nearly equal lobes; veins distinct, flat, four to five at 
the base of each leaflet, forking once, each division ascend¬ 
ing to the top of one of the lobes (fig. 5 enlarged). 
It is a well characterized and distinct species, and in studying it at Colches¬ 
ter, I have found among the shales a great number of broken specimens, rep¬ 
resenting different parts of it, and have seen all the leaflets, from the 
largest one around the broad part of the stems, to those of the branchlets, pre¬ 
senting the same form and kind of division. It can be compared only to a 
variety of Sphenophyllum emargina/um, Brgt., figured byGeinitz in his Verst, 
pi. xx, fig. 6. But it differs indeed in its essential characters: broader stems 
and leaflets, peculiar and equal divisions, and a different kind of nervation. 
The branching, as seen, fig. 1, is also peculiar for a species of this genus. It 
• ' 1 
is worth remarking that the branches of this plant are mixed on most of the 
specimens with the remains of a somewhat obscure Catamites, resembling Cata¬ 
mites Suckowii, Brgt, a coincidence which may be casual. In any case I could 
not trace any evident connection between the two plants, and the stems of this 
Sphenophi/llum do not appear as equally and deeply striate as are generally the 
branches of Catamites. 
Roof shales of the Colchester coal. 
