122 ON THE FOSSIL FLORA OF THE COAL DEPOSITS OF AUSTRALIA, 



different genera. In the case of G. angustifolia* there is a 

 longitudinal intramarginal vein indicating a fructification like 

 Pteris, our commonest living Fern. The fossil is not known in 

 Australia. 



Twelve species and a variety are recorded from Australia, and 

 these distinctions depend entirely on the shape of the leaf, and the 

 mode of the reticulation. Such distinction would not be specific 

 in living ferns, but in paleontological botany we cannot always 

 have well-marked and numerous specific features; yet in proportion 

 as they are slight, we must exercise the greatest caution in recog- 

 nizing such forms as characteristic of different horizons or localities. 



Glossopteris broivniana. Brongniart Prodromus (p. 54 ; Veg. 

 Foss., p. 223, t. 62 Morris in Strzelecki, p. 247, PI. vi., fig. 1, 

 la. M'Coy; Ann. Nat. Hist., Vol. 20, p. 150. Feist. Ost. Aust. 

 Pal. und Mesoz. Flora p. 91, PI. viii, figs. 3, 4., x. 1, 2, 5, 7., xi. 

 fig. 1.) Frond simple, spathulate, or oblong lanceolate, entire, 

 attenuate at the base ; costa thick, canaliculate, gradually con- 

 tracting towards the apex, veins oblique, anastomosing, hexagonal 

 near the rachis and elongate near the edge. Of this species Morris 

 makes the following observations. He says that it is abundant in 

 the coal beds of Australia, and if they should turn out to be coal 

 measures (paleozoic) it would be exceptional, as in the same period 

 in England and America, there is no evidence of Ferns with 

 simple fronds and reticulate venation. He remarks that this 

 species forms the type of Brongniarts genus Glossopteris, but two 

 other species were referred to it from the Oolite series of Sweden 

 and England. The one from England, G. phiUipsii, while agreeing 

 with G. browniana in the venation, appears not to have been a 

 simple frond, but digitate, four or five pinnulse arising in a fan 

 like form from a common rachis. Goeppert in consequence made 

 it form one of the sections of his genus Acrostichites, but it was 

 obviously a Sagenopteris. 



* The second of the two forms originally described by Brongniart. 

 Hist. 1, p. 227, pi. 63, fig. 1. 



