BY R. ETHERIDGE, JUN. 237 



var. a. australasica that the generic name should be applied. But 

 it is this very variety that is unprovided for in the triple sub- 

 division, simply because the fruiting was not apparent in the 

 original specimens received by Brongniart from Australia. To 

 which division, therefore — that with the round sori, that with 

 the linear sori, or that with the supposed marginal fructification, 

 is Brongniart's var. a. australasica, to be referred 1 As a corollary 

 to this arises the question — which of the three sections is Glos- 

 sopteris in its restricted meaning 1 



"We may tentatively dismiss Group 3 from consideration, for two 

 reasons. It was one of the after species described by Brongniart, 

 and we have no knowledge of its existence in Australia, but it 

 certainly will hereafter require a name to distinguish it by. 



The general question is further complicated by Mr. John 

 Mitchell's discovery of what he believes to be the typical form of 

 Indian fructification on a Glossoptsris frond from the Newcastle 

 beds, at Lake Macqnai'ie Eoad, near Charlestown. He lately 

 exhibited to this Society,* the leaf in question, an impression 

 without organic film, showing two rounded bodies and the indica- 

 tion of a third. We are indebted to Mr. Mitchell for the loan of 

 this specimen, and freely admit that in their serial arrangement 

 they correspond to those scars described by Brongniart, and 

 figured by the latter and Feistmantel, but the objects themselves 

 do not convey to us the idea of sori. We must, however, bow to 

 the evidence such as it is, and it would thus appear that we have 

 in Australia Glossopteris-\\ke leaves possessing two out of the 

 three forms of fructification. 



In answer to the question put by ourselves in a preceding 

 paragraph — which of the three sections is Glossopteris ? the course 

 that best commends itself to us is, in this particular instance, to 

 overlook strict priority and follow Schimper in selecting the var. b. 

 indica as the type of the genus, and restricting the name 

 Glossopteris to those forms that, like the latter, are provided with 



♦ Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1892, vii. (2), Pt. 3, p. 377. 

 17 



