108 GANGAMOFTERIS. 



which to found a specific diagnosis, and is hest described as 

 Gangamopteris, sp. 



The Australian frond to which Feistmantel gave the name 

 G. Clarlceana should perhaps be also included with G. cyclopteroides; 

 at any rate, it does not seem to me to be worthy of separate 

 rank. The chief differences appear to be the comparatively small 

 size, the coriaceous texture, and the thicker and more distant 

 nerves. Feistmantel ' himself noticed the resemblance between 

 this frond and McCoy's G. spatulata, here included .with 

 G. cyclopteroides. 



Feistmantel has determined several Indian varieties of this 

 species, most of which appear to me to be hardly worthy of 

 distinction. G. cyclopteroides, var. subauriculata, includes fronds, 

 very elongately oval or elliptical in habit, in which the basal 

 angles broaden out slightly in an auriculate manner. The 

 nervation is, however, identical with the ordinary form. In 

 G. cyclopteroides, var. areolata, the meshes in the lower portion 

 of the frond are broader and more polygonal than in the rest of 

 the lamina. G. cyclopteroides, var. attenuated, is indistinguishable 

 from the typical frond, except in the fact that the leaf is more 

 distinctly narrowed at the base. Similarly his variety acuminata 

 includes fronds with an acuminate apex. The leaves distinguished 

 as the variety cordifolia appear to be only small fronds of the same 

 type, and in several cases the evidence for the base of the leaf 

 being cordate in shape is hardly trustworthy. 



Distribution. — Per mo- Carboniferous (Glossoptei'is flora) : — India, 

 in the Talchir and Damuda divisions ; New South Wales, in the 

 Newcastle Series ; Victoria ; Tasmania ; South Africa, Transvaal ; 

 South America, Brazil and Argentina. Permian (Northern Type) : — 

 Hussia. 



Fronds of Gangamopteris cyclopteroides from India. 



V. 7150. Part of a long, lanceolate frond, of which this is an 

 apical portion, measuring about 11 cm. in length. The nervation is 

 fairly clear. Apparently there is no definite midrib, but a bundle 

 of sub-parallel nerves traverse the median portion of the leaf. 



Near Nagpur. Hunter Coll. 



1 Feistmantel (78), p. 93, pi. xv, fig. 9; (90), p. 131, pi. xx, fig. 3. 



