A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."

by Gideon Algernon Mantell

PLATE XXIX.

"Trifoliate Sphenopterite."

(Sphenopteris trifoliata, Brongniart, Hist. Veg. Foss. tab. 53, fig. 3.
Filicites trifoliatus, of Artis.
Cheilanthites; from its supposed analogy to the recent genus Cheilanthes. Göppert.
Trans. Academy of Bonn.)

This is a rare species of fern from the coal shale of Yorkshire, Elsecar Colliery. It has the leaf or frond tripinnate; the pinnæ, lobes, or wings, alternate with an odd one; the leaflets are ternate, with roundish, convex lobes.

This plant has been referred to the tropical ferns, and is nearly allied to the genera Davallia, or Cheilanthes; but from the almost general absence of the organs of fructification in fossil ferns, it is impossible to refer them with any certainty to living genera. It belongs to the Sphenopteres, or wedge-shaped-leaf ferns, of M. Brongniart.

A, shows the cast or matrix of the under side of the leaf; B, the upper side in relief.

Plate XXX.