234 GLOSSOPTERIS AND ITS ALLIES, 



divaricate reticulate neuration, resembling that of the parent 

 frond, but much less strongly marked ; these scales are of large 

 size, some of them being nearly an inch in length, and terminating 

 at the apex in a long flat linear appendage, about one line in 

 width, which occasionally gives oS small, lateral, flat, membraneous 

 branches, nearly at right angles." Here, again, it is clear that 

 no useful comparison can be made with the new specimen, for we 

 have not observed any structure at all corresponding to this. 



Before proceeding to discuss the highly important question of 

 fructification, it is absolutely necessary to have a clear perception 

 of Brongniart's constitution of Glossopteris. Of the four species 

 described by him,* the only one we are at present concerned with 

 is his G. browniana, the type, but of this two varieties are 

 mentioned. The first is var. a. australasica, the second var. b. 

 indica. By the laws of nomenclature, therefore, should it become 

 necessary to separate these varieties generically, it is to the var. a., 

 or the Australian form, that the name Glossojyteris would have to 

 be restricted. Schimper, on the other hand, in his great work, 

 the " Traite de Palaeontologie Vegetale,"t constitutes the var. b., 

 or the Indian plant, the type of the genus, and restricts the two 

 varieties of Brongniart under their respective names as species. 

 In this he was afterwards followed by Feistmantel. j 



Now, the earliest indication of fructification in Glossopteris was 

 seen by Brongniart on var. b. (indica), in the form of what he 

 believed to be the scars of large, rounded, sessile capsules, or sori, 

 arranged at intervals, in a subserial manner, near the margins of 

 the frond.§ For many years this was all that was known of the 

 fruiting of Glossopteris, but in 1861 Bnnbury published|| similar 

 figures of the Indian plant to Brongniart's, exhibiting small 

 round spots subserially arranged parallel to the frond margin. 



* Hist. Veg. Foss. 1828, i. p. 223. 



t Vol. i. 1869, p. 645. 



:; Pal. Indica (Gondwana Flora), 1879, iii. Pt. 1, p. 100. 



§ Hist. Veg. Foss. 1828, i. p. 224. 



II Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1861, xvii. p. 327, t. 8, f. 1 and 4. 



