SELLARDS.| Fossil Plants, Upper Paleozoic, Kansas. 393 
rent, cut in above the base by an acute sinus, oblong-ovate, 
obtusely pointed, broadest just above the base, united by a 
wing-like membrane bordering the rachis. Lower basal pin- 
nule of the pinna. often heteromorphous, lobed, the lower one 
deflexed along the rachis. Texture thin but somewhat coria- 
ceous. Venation often indistinct, midvein decurrent at the 
base, continuing to near the apex; lateral veins oblique, only 
moderately curved, forked once or twice at a rather narrow 
angle. 
This fern was referred by Lesquereux to the European spe- 
cies Sphenopteris (Neuropteris) cordato-ovata (Weiss) Zeiller. 
The identity of the American and European forms has, how- 
ever, been questioned by Zeiller, White, and others. The spe- 
cies is abundant in the Le Roy shales, and the large series of 
specimens differ uniformly from the types figured by Weiss in 
the more obtuse pinnules, which are much broader in propor- 
tion to their length. The rachis of the pinna projects beyond 
the lamina, and the basal pinnule on the lower side is deflexed 
and heteromorphous, characters apparently absent from the 
Sphenopteris cordato-ovata as figured by European authors, 
and which necessitate the reference of the species to the genus 
Mariopteris. 
Formation and locality: Le Roy shales, Upper Coal Meas- 
ures. Occurs also at Thayer, according to White (Bull. U. S. 
Geol. Surv. No. 211). 
Mariopteris occidentalis D. W. Pl. XLIV, fig. 4. 
Mariopteris occidentalis David White, Nineteenth Annual Report 
of the U. S. Geol. Surv., pt. III, Fossil Plants of the McAllester- 
Lehigh Coal Field, Ind. Ter., p. 480, pl. 67, figs. 1-6, 1899. 
The presence of this species in the Cherokee shales at the 
Lansing mine seems assured, although the material represent- 
ing it consists of a single specimen, the upper part of an ulti- 
mate pinna. The agreement, however, with the original de- 
Scription and illustrations, as well as with specimens from 
the type locality, is so close that there can be little doubt of its 
reference. The nervation of the specimen is very clearly pre- 
served in detail. 
Formation and locality: Cherokee shales, Lansing, Kan. 
