12 Annals of the South African Museum. 



examples it might well be impossible to arrive at a generic much 

 less specific determination. 



So far as vegetative characters are concerned, the fern described 

 by Yokoyama from Japan as Pecopteris hrowniana " appears to be 

 identical with the South African plant ; a frond of very similar if not 

 identical form is figured by the same author from a somewhat lower 

 horizon as Pecopteris exilis Phill.,i an Inferior Oolite species since-- 

 placed in the genus Kluhia.\ Nathorst has also figured portions of 

 fronds from Japan which he regards as probably identical with his- 

 species Pecopteris geyleriana. It is, however, not improbable that 

 the specimens represented in his pi. iv., figs. 2, 6, are specifically 

 distinct from the type-specimen of P. geyleriana ;% be that as it. 

 may, I am unable to distinguish the two examples shown in 

 Nathorst's figs. 2 and 5 from the Uitenhage fern. In addition to 

 the records of ferns believed to be identical with Cladophlehis^ 

 broivniana mentioned in the above synonomy, there are others 

 which may be referred to as presenting a close resemblance possibly 

 amounting in some cases to specific identity. 



Eeference has already been made to Oldham's Indian species 

 Pecopteris lobata, as a fern with the same form of frond as that of 

 Claclophlehis broivniana; the specimen figured by Feistmantel as- 

 Dicksonia [Splienopteris) bindrabunensis \\ may perhaps represent 

 the fertile form of Pecopteris lobata. Dicksonia coriacea, a Chinese^ 

 species recorded by Schenk affords another example of the C. 

 Broiuniana form of frond."' Some of the fragments figured by 

 Saporta='=* from Neo-Jurassic rocks of Portugal maybe identical with 

 the African plant, and a comparison may also be made with 

 Aspidium hctcropliyllum and Clculophlebis distansW described by 

 Fontaine from the Potomac beds. Aspidium montanense figured by 

 the same author \ l from the Great Palls of Montana represents- 

 another very similar species. 



Another fern of precisely similar habit to Gladophlebis broivniana 

 and hardly distinguishable from it is a species recently placed in 

 the genus Coniopteris, on the evidence of fertile specimens, but 

 originally described as Ncuroptcris anjuta L. and H.§§ This Inferior 



* Yokoyama (94), p. 218, pi. xxiv., figs. 2, 3; pi. xxvii., figs. 1-5. 



t Ibid. (89), pi. i., figs. 8-10. + Raciborski (91). 



S Nathorst (90). || Feistmantel (77), pi. xxxvii., fig. 2. 



•i Schenk (88), pi. lii., figs. 5, 6. 



*• Saporta (94), pi. vi., fig. 1 ; pi. vii., fig. 5; pi. xi., xii. 



tt Fontaine (89), pi. xiii., figs. 4, 5 ; pi. xv., figs. 1-5. 



J{ Ibid. (92), pi. Ixxxii., Ixxxiii., and Ixxxiv. 



§§ Sewai-d (00^), p. 115, pi. xvi., xvii. ; Lindley and Hutton (34), pi. cv. 



