1082 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN FOSSILS, 



impossible to have recourse to the delicate macerations which 

 would have resulted in the separation of the epidermis for 

 microscopical examination through transmitted light, as Saporta 

 did. (1) 



Among the debris of plants from the Wianamatta shales, from 

 which Mr. Whitelegge makes such beautiful slides, it might not 

 be impossible to find some thinner fragments of the same plant in 

 which it would be more easy to distinguish the venation. 



For the diagnosis of the two genera under notice, I will do no 

 more at present than refer to the authors already quoted, but I 

 will extract from Saporta's work his own untranslated interpreta- 

 tion of the border of the pinnules. 



At p. 395 he says — " Evidemment voisius des Cycadopteris, 

 les Lomatopteris s'en distinguent et par l'absence de nervures 

 secondaires dans chaque pinnule et aussi par le repli marginal, 

 remplace chez le premier de ces genres, ainsi que nous avons pu 

 nous en assurer, par un ourlet (hem ?) cartilagineux oil viennent se 

 perdre les veines sorties de la mediane" And at p. 419 — " Le 

 bourrelet (pad 1) cartilagineux qui sert de marge aux pinnules des 

 Cycadopteris constitue aussi un caractere fort net empechant qu'on 

 ne puisse confondre ce genre avec eel ui des Pachyteris, &c. 

 ou Men enfin avec les Lomatopteris clont la bordure resulte d'un 

 repli de la marge, &c." 



Lastly I will add that the character which induced me in the first 

 instance to regard the fossil as more likely allied to Cycadopteris 

 than to Lomatopteris, in presence of the uncertainty as to the 

 existence of a secondary nervation, is, that the border appears 

 visible on the upper surface of the frond as a duplication or a- 

 folding of the epidermis, but when the under surface is disengaged, 

 the border is seen also as a hem. As no specimens are available 

 here for comparison, I give an enlarged section of what can be 

 seen (fig. 6 bis) of that border which, in the meantime, leaves the 

 identification a doubtful matter. 



I intended to give a provisional description of one of the fishes 

 found with these plants, which has already been exhibited before the 



(1) I.e. p. 393. 



