374 



ON A SPECIMEN OF NOEGGERATEIOPSIS FROM THE LOWER COAL 

 MEASURES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By A. B. Walkom, D.Sc. 



(Plate XXV.) 



The object of the present short note is to place on record a remarkably 

 fine specimen of Noeggerathiopsis, from between the two splits of the Greta 

 Seam in the Lower Coal Measures of New South Wales. 



There is no need here to give any historical account of the genus in Aus- 

 tralia, for the late R. Etheridge, Jr., has gone into this very fully in a recent 

 paper (Geol. Mag., July, 1918, pp. 289-293). He there described four clusters 

 of leaves, bringing the number of specimens found in Australia, showing the 

 radiate arrangement of the leaves, up to seven. The specimen described here 

 also shows this arrangement and is far larger than any previously described ; 

 it brings the number up to eight. It was exhibited by Mr. C. A. Sussrailch 

 before the Geologj- Section of the Royal Society of N.S.W. (Journal, liv., 1920. 

 p. xxxiv.) Associated with the Noeggerathiopsis, on the same specimen, are 

 several fragments of leaves of Glossopteris. Plate xxv. is from a photograph of 

 the specimen. 



The specimen shows the remains of iiorticms of some 13 or 14 leaves at- 

 tached to a central stem which is from 1.5 to 2 cm. in diameter. The leaves 

 are spread out on a fine-grained grey shale, and arranged in a radiate manner. 

 They are all incomplete, none of them showing the nature of the apex; the 

 majority of them, however, show a considerable portion, while a few only show 

 a few cm. of the bai^al part. The largest portion of a leaf has a lengtli of 

 17-18 cm. and gradually becomes broader from the base outwards; it is about 

 1 cm. broad where it joins the stem, and 3.5 cm. wide at about 17 cm. from the 

 stem. The specimen shows quite clearly tliat the arrangement of the leaves 

 is not verticillate; this is also of course obvious from the fact that there are 

 about 14 leaves present, each being about 1 cm. wide at the base, and attached 

 to a stem wliose circumference is aiiparcntly not more than about 7 cm. Close 

 examination indicates that the arrangement is probably spiral, though one 

 cannot determine the phyllotaxy. 



The venation is rather coai"se, the veins slightly divergent and bifurcating 

 from time to time. There are about 14 veins per cm. on an average, but there 

 is no sign of any finer venation between the coarser veins, such as has been 

 observed in species of Cordailes. It may be noted, however, that quite fre- 

 quently the veins have the appearance of being arranged in pairs. It was 

 bcH-ause of the absence of these intci-stitial veins together with the fact that the 

 stomata appeared to be less regularly arranged that Zeiller retained the name 

 Noeggerathiopiiis in preference to Cordaites for these leaves. 



Interstitial veins have however since been found on specimens of Noeggera- 

 thiopsis from India :md South America {see Seward, Fossil Plants, iii., p. 243), 



