64 Annals of the South African Museum. 



The veins, which are very clearly preserved, radiate from the apex 

 of the leaf-stalk, and by the occasional anastomosis of adjacent 

 forked branches, form long meshes. 



In shape the leaf may be compared with small fronds of the 

 recent fern Dipteris ,■'■ and with the fossil genera Protorhipis of 

 Andrae and Hausmannia of Dunker, but the absence of veins in the 

 meshes constitutes an important distinguishing feature. Some 

 Jurassic Bornholm ferns figured by Moller in a recent paper and 

 referred to Hansmannia,\ but which I should prefer to assign to 

 Protorhipis, illustrate the superficial resemblance of the Dipteris 

 type of frond to Chiropteris zeilleri. 



A fossil leaf with somewhat similar, but not identical, venation 

 has been figured by Feistmantel from India as Belcmnoptcris Wood- 

 masoniana I and compared with the recent genus Hemionitis . The 

 genus Hemionitis,l atypical American member of the Polypodiaceae, 

 is characterised by its palmate lamina and prominent ribs, thus 

 differing from Chiropteris. The recent genera Ophioglosswn and 

 Antrophymn afford the nearest parallels as regards venation to the 

 fossil frond, but we have absolutely no evidence as to the precise 

 position of Ghiropteris. 



The specimens of Ghiropteris figured by Bronn from the Letten- 

 kohle beds || differ from G. zeilleri in the much more numerous and 

 crowded veins, which are not described as anastomosing, and in the 

 apparently whorled disposition of the sessile leaves. I have named 

 the Stormberg leaf after my friend Professor Zeiller of Paris, whose 

 work has done so much to extend our knowledge of the vegetation 

 of the Southern hemisphere. 



GYMNOSPEEMiE. 



Geoup ginkgoales. 



Genus BAIERA, Braun. 



Baiera stormbergensis sp. nov. 



Plate VIIL, fig. 3. 



Lamina deeply dissected into broad linear segments which are 

 again subdivided distally into narrower linear lobes ; veins com- 



* Seward and Dale (01). f Moller (02). + Feistmantel (80), pi. xliii. A. 



§ Christ. (97), p. 57. I! Bronn (58), p. 143, pi. xii. 



