74 



GLOSSOrTERIS. 



as a variety of G. Browniana. I am inclined to regard it as 

 probable that G. angustifolia may have been borne on the same 

 plant as G. indica, tbat it is simply a narrow frond corresponding 

 with G. indica in much the same way as some of the narrower fronds 

 of G. Browniana (e.g. that described by McCoy as G. linearis) were 

 probably associated in the living state with the spathulate fronds 

 usually regarded as typical of G. Browniana. It is a form 

 practically unknown from Australia, where G. indica is rare, 

 whereas it is fairly abundant in Tndia and South Africa, where 

 G. indica is of common occurrence. There is also a great similarity 

 between the nervation of these two species, allowing for the 

 difference in size and shape. On the other hand, G. angustifolia 

 appears to be a fairly constant type of frond, whereas the narrower 

 fronds here included under G. Browniana vary so greatly among 



Fig. 19. 



-Glossopteris angustifolia, Brongniart. Enlarged drawings of the type- 

 specimen. After Zeiller. x 2. 



themselves that it seems hopeless to attempt to distinguish between 

 them and the spathulate type. For this reason, and in view of the 

 admittedly artificial nature of this classification (see p. 46), it 

 seems convenient to maintain for the present the specific rank of 

 G. angustifolia. 



This species was first described by Brongniart, 1 who regarded it 

 as distinct from G. Browniana and G. indica. The nervation of 

 the type -specimens has recently been accurately refigured by 

 Zeiller 2 (Text-fig. 19). As Feistmantel and Zeiller have pointed 



1 Brongniart (28-), p. 224, pi. lxiii, fig. 1. 



2 Zeiller (96 1 ), p. 370, text-figs. 14, 15. 



