Fossil Floras of Cape Colony. 11 



1890. Pecoptcris Geyleriana Nathorst, Denkschr. k. Ak. Wiss. math.- 



nat. CL, vol. Ivii., p. 48, pi. iv., figs. 2-6. 

 1890. Pccoptcris cf. Broioniana, ibid., pi. v., fig. 5. 



Frond bipinnate, passing in the lower part of the frond to tri- 

 pinnate. Eachis comparatively broad and strong, from which linear 

 pinnae, tapering to an acuminate apex, are given off at a wide angle. 

 Pinnules short and broad, attached by the whole broad base to the 

 axis of the pinna ; the lower margin strongly arched, the upper face 

 almost straight or slightly concave. A well-marked midrib from 

 which spring a small number of secondary veins at a wide angle. 

 The pinnules are for the most part entire, passing in the lower 

 pinnae into lobed or even pinnate segments. 



The Uitenhage specimens include numerous examples of bi- 

 pinnate and tripinnate fronds which were referred by Tate in his 

 paper of 1867 '■' to a species previously figured by Oldham f from the 

 Eajmahal Hills of Bengal as Pccoptcris (?) lobata. A comparison of 

 the fragments represented in pi. ii., figs. 1-4 and 6, with the 

 specimen figured by Oldham reveals a very close resemblance, 

 which, as Tate suggested, may amount to specific identity. On the 

 other hand, there is, I think, an even closer agreement between the 

 Uitenhage fern and that described from European Wealden strata 

 as Cladophlchis dunkeri (Schimp),| a form originally named by 

 Dunker in 1846 Pccoptcris polymorplia.l The fern named by 

 Dunker Pccoptcris h-oioniana \\ differs in no essential features from 

 CladophleMs dunkeri, and a re-examination of specimens from the 

 Wealden beds of the Sussex coast leads me to give up my previously 

 expressed opinion that both specific names should be retained. The 

 difference between the fragment represented in pi. vii., fig. 4, of 

 my ' Wealden Flora,' Part I., and that shown in pi. vii., fig. 3,*I is, 

 I think, not more than may be found on a single frond of the same 

 species. Seeing that the name broioniana was estabhshed before 

 the specific name dunkeri, it should be employed in preference to 

 Schimper's designation. 



The accurate separation of sterile fronds of the type represented 

 in pi. ii., figs. 1-4, 6, is a hopeless task; among recent ferns this 

 form of leaf recurs in several genera, and in the absence of fertile 



• Tate (67), p. 146. 



f Oldham and Morris (63), pi. xxviii.-xxx. ; Feistmantel (77), pi. xxxvi., fig. 3. 

 X Seward (94), p. 101, pi. vii., fig. a. § Dunker (46), pi. vii., fig. 5. 



]| Ihid., pi. viii., fig. 7. '1 Seward (1)4). 



