Fossil Floras of Caim Colony. 85' 



South Africa. There are, however, a few Northern Hemisphere 

 forms characteristic of Lower Carboniferous strata which exhibit a 

 very close agreement with Neuroptcridmm. The well-known Gardi- 

 opteris frondosa (Goepp.) from the Culm of Germany, as figured by 

 Stur,''= Schimper,f and others is characterised by large pinnate fronds 

 bearing semicircular entire segments in the lower part of the leaf 

 and longer and sHghtly lobed pinnules in the upper portion of the 

 frond, as in the African specimen represented in pi. x., fig. 1. 



A portion of a pinnate frond almost identical with that shown on 

 pi. X. is figured by Fritsch from Thuringian Culm rocks as Archce- 

 opteris daivsoni Stur.]: A plant recently described by Grigoriew 

 from Qpper Carboniferous rocks of Russia as Ncuropteris cf. cordata 

 Brongn. var. dcnsineura is also very similar to the African frond, 

 and should hardly be referred to a distinct genus. § It is probably 

 better, at least more convenient, to retain the two names Gardiop- 

 teris and NciLroptcridiuvi ; but in some cases we must admit either 

 designation might be used with equal propriety as regards external 

 characters of the frond, irrespective of geographical distribution. 

 Gardiopteris as at present used denotes fronds usually of Lower 

 Carboniferous age characterised by pinnules that tend to be more 

 orbicular and less deeply lobed than those of Neuroptteridium ; the 

 latter genus, moreover, with the exception of the Vosges species, 

 forms an element of the southern Glossopteris flora, while the 

 former is northern in its range. 



Neukopteridium validum Feist. 

 Plate X., fig. 1. 



1869. Odontoptcris PlantianaOi\xv\xi\\em, Geol. Mag., vol. vi., p. 9,. 



pi. vi., figs. 2, 3. 

 1878. Neuropteris valida Feistmantel, Mem. Geol. Surv. India, 



Foss. Flor. Gondwana System, vol. iii., p. 10, pi. ii.-vi. 

 1880. Neuropteridium vcdidum Feistmantel, ibid. (1880), p. 84. 

 1894. Neuropteridium validum Kurtz, Revista del Mus. de la 



Plata, vol. vi., p. 11, pi. 1. 

 1896. Neuropteridiavi validum Bodenbender, Zeit. Deutsch. Geol. 



Ges., vol. xlviii., p. 772. 



* Stur(7.5), p. 41, pi. xiii., xiv. 



t Schimper (69), p. 4-33, pi. xxxv. ; also Schlumberger and Schimper (G2) 

 pi. XXV., p. 339. 



+ Fritsch (97), pi. i., fig. 3, p. 90. § Grigoriew (98), pi. iv. 



