Neuropteris

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of fossil ferns, established by Brongniart in 1828, very widely distributed, especially characteristic of the coal-measures (of Carboniferous age) in different parts of the world, and not passing above the Permian. The fronds are simple, bipinnate or tripinnate, the pinnules rounded, heart-shaped or auriculated at the base, the median nerve sometimes almost entirely wanting, and generally disappearing altogether before the point of the pinnule is reached—the nervation diverging from the base or from the middle nerve, fan-like and curving backward. In several species the main stem bears rounded or kidney-shaped leaflets, which were formerly referred to a distinct genus (Cyclopteris). The fructification of Neuropteris has not yet been clearly made out. The genera Neuropteris, Lesleya, Dictyopteris, and Odontopteris are referred by Lesquereux to the section of Neuropterids.

Wiktionary

1. n. A taxonomic genus of fossil ferns, of which species have been found from the Devonian to the Triassic formation.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Paleon.) An extensive genus of fossil ferns, of which species have been found from the Devonian to the Triassic formation.