BY R. ETHERIDGE, JUN. 229 



reader may choose to call them, associated with the coal-bearing 

 rocks of this country, " forming more than nine-tenths, and 

 perhaps ninety-nine hundredths, of all the fossil bands of these 

 regions,"* and so closely interwoven is the genus with the old 

 dispute as to the age of our Coal-measures, that it seems almost 

 superfluous to refer to its general structure. But the fortunate 

 discovery of a more than ordinarily interesting specimen near 

 Mudgee, by Mr. C. J. Horsley, J. P., showing the attachment of 

 the fronds to the caudex, has necessitated a reconsideration of the 

 entire history and structure of Glossopteris. More particularly is 

 this the case, as there is only one previous authentic record, and a 

 second less so, of the relation of these parts in the genus. The 

 almost universal mode of occurrence is that of separate petiolate 

 fronds, throughout the shales of our Coal-measures, either singly or 

 in matted masses. 



The exigencies of the Palfeo-botanist necessitated the christening 

 of these various forms of fronds with different names, often, no 

 doubt, erroneously, as there are at the i)resent time no less than 

 fifteen! accepted species of Glossopteris in the Australasian Coal- 

 measures alone; in the Indo-Chinese Gondwana Formation 

 eighteen, and perhaps more ; and in the Karu Formation of S. 

 Africa, six. So they must remain, until the fortunate discovery 

 of specimens similar to the pi'esent enables us to gradually reduce 

 the multiplicity of species by learning more about the leaf -attach- 

 ment, or association of one with the other on the same caudex, to 

 say nothing of the fructification. 



2. Description op the Specimen. 



Turning now to the specimen, we see the remains of a small 

 Cdudex or stem, surmounted by a clump of closely packed fronds, 

 with ample traces on the former of the previous existence of 



* Daua. Wilkes U.S. Explor. Exped. x. (Geology), 1849, p. 716. 

 t We do not include G. ovata, Johnston, in this enumeration, as it seems 

 to be little more than a variety of G. ampla, Dana ; neither are varieties of 

 other species counted. 



