152 CAULOPTERIS. 



Caulopteris and Ptychopteris are impressions of stems, the one 

 showing the true external surface, the other the partially decorti- 

 cated condition of the same plant; the internal structure being 

 known as Psaronius. 



Distribution. — Permian and Upper Carboniferous (Northern 

 Type) : — Europe and 'N. America. 



[Caulopteris ?] ' Adamsi, Feistmantel. 



1878. Caulopteris (?) Adamsi, Feistmantel, Palteontogr., Suppl. iii, p. 94, 



pi. xii, figs. 1, 2. 

 1883. C. (?) Adamsi, Tenison-Woods, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South "Wales, 



vol. viii, pp. 132-3. 

 1890. C. Adamsi, Feistmantel, Mem. Geol. Surv. New South "Wales, 



Pal. No. 3, p. 135, pi. xxi, figs. 1, 2. 



Type. ? Australian Museum, Sydney. 



Feistmantel describes this species thus : — " The specimen is 

 hardly sufficiently complete to decide its nature and systematic 

 position with absolute certainty ; but supposing it to be, what it 

 most probably is, a fragment of a fern trunk, and, taking the 

 disposition of the scars to be quincuncial, I thought it would be 

 more correct to place this specimen with the genus Caulopteris, as 

 there are not sufficient characters for placing it anywhere else, or 

 for making it the type of a new genus. I have given the 

 following diagnosis : — Sp. Char. — Trunco arboreo, mediocri, 

 superficie cicatricibus ramorum (foliorum) notato ; cicatricibus in 

 quincunce (spiraliter) dispositis, transverse oblonge-ovalibus, paulum 

 prorninentibus, lateribus linea decurrente notatis ; superficie interna 

 cicatriculis parvulis vasalibus, 7 ad 8, repleta." 



I am unable to see any resemblance in Feistmantel's figures to 

 the European fern-stems included under Caulopteris, and I have 

 no hesitation in saying that the attribution of these specimens 

 to that genus is unjustified. As Feistmantel admits, they are 

 too fragmentary to allow of exact determination. Without seeing 

 the actual specimens I am unable to refer them to any other 

 genus, and I have, therefore, retained Feistmantel's generic name 



See footnote, p. 30. 



