Fig. 371. Neuropteris heterophylla. From a specimen in the Manchester Museum. ½ nat. size. M.S.
As shown in [fig. 371] which represents a primary pinna, the small pinnules on the lower branches are gradually replaced in the upper portion of the specimen by falcate segments.
Neuropteris macrophylla, Brongniart[1539]. Figs. [354], D, D′; [372].
The rachis of the large fronds of this species illustrates the dichotomous habit of many Neuropteris fronds, also the occurrence on the petiole of large Cyclopteroid pinnules (cf. [fig. 370]). The small piece of a pinna reproduced in [fig. 372] shows the slender attachment of the segments, the blunt apex, and the Neuropteroid venation. Single pinnules of this species may be distinguished from those of N. Scheuchzeri by the blunter apex, the absence of the pair of small Cyclopteroid pinnules on the same branch and by the absence of hairs. N. macrophylla is characteristic of the Upper Coal-Measures of Britain.
Fig. 372. Neuropteris macrophylla, Brongn. From a photograph by Mr Hemingway.
Neuropteris Scheuchzeri, Hoffmann. Figs. [354], F; [373].
Fragments of this well-known Coal-Measure species were figured by Scheuchzer in his Herbarium Diluvianum[1540] as Lithosmunda minor, and by Lhywd (Luidius[1541]) as Phyllites mineralis as early as 1760. Neuropteris Scheuchzeri, so named by Hoffmann in 1826, is a type which many authors have described under different names. Lesquereux[1542] figured it as N. hirsuta from the Coal-fields of Pennsylvania, and under the same name it is recorded by Fontaine and White[1543] from Permian rocks of Virginia. The oval patches on the surface of a pinnule described by these authors as sori are certainly not of that nature. The same species is described by Bunbury[1544] from Nova Scotia as N. cordata Brongn. var. angustifolia. For a full synonymy of the species reference should be made to lists published by Kidston[1545], White[1546], and Zeiller[1547].
Fig. 373. Neuropteris Scheuchzeri. From a specimen (v. 2009) in the British Museum. ¾ nat. size.