SPECIMEN OF ANNULAL'IA EHOM NEAL' DUN EDOO.—WALKOM. 233 



NOTE ON A SPECIMEN OF ANNULARIA 



From near Dunedoo, New South Wales. 



By a. B. WALKOM, B.Sc, 



Assistant Lecturer in Geology, The University of Queensland, and 



Honorary Palasontologist to the Queensland Museum. 



(Plate XXV.) 



A SMALL collection of specimens of Glossopteris was recently donated to 

 the Queensland MuseunL They were collected by Mr. W. Elliott Nixon at a spot 

 about eight miles from Dunedoo, New South A¥ales, and forwarded by him to 

 the ]\Iuseuni. IMost of the specimens are Glossopteris hroivniana, but on one 

 specimen (No. F 15/985/5) there is a plant of considerable interest. 



The specimen shows a jointed stem with whorls of leaves at the nodes. 

 There are two internodes and three nodes with their whorls of leaves preserved. 

 The stem has a breadth of 2 mm. and the internodes are 1-7 and 2 cm. long. 

 The whorls consist of from 18 to 20 leaves; those in a single whorl are unequal 

 in length, the lateral ones in the specimen being the longest. The leaves unite 

 to form a narrow basal collar; they are up to 3 mm. in breadth and 2 cm. in 

 length and possess a prominent midrib. They are elongately lanceolate with a 

 somewhat acute tip. Viewed under the microscope the midrib is seen to be 

 striated longitudinally and some of the leaves show markings transverse to the 

 midrib. These transverse markings appear to be of something more than a litho- 

 logical character, but are not sufficiently definite to be regarded as venation. 



The specimen agrees with those larger species of Annularia which are 

 regarded as the foliage of Calamitean stems. It may tentatively be referred to 

 A. stellata (Schloth.), and is somewhat like that figured by Seward.^ 



In Annularia the leaves of a whorl are supposed to be in one plane ; this 

 character is difficult to determine in fossils, where the specimens are always. on 

 a flat surface. It is doubtful whether it is the case with the larger species which 

 are the foliage of Calamites. 



This specimen comes from strata belonging to the upper freshwater series 

 (Newcastle Coal Measures) of the so-called Permo-Carboniferous System in New 

 South Wales. As far as I have been able to ascertain no systematic collecting 

 has been done in the district from which the specimen M'as obtained. 



The only Annularia which has previously been recorded from the so-called 

 Permo-Carboniferous rocks of Eastern Australia is Annularia australis~ from 

 the Greta Coal Measures of N.S.W. 



Schmalhausen^ placed this species in his genus Cyclopitys, an equiseta- 

 ceous-looking genus which he assigned to the conifers. Feistmantel,'' however, did 



1 Fossil Plants, vol. 1, p. 339, fig. 88. 



^ Feistmantel , Palseontographica, Suppl. Band, iii, 1878-9. 



Tenison-Woods, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., viii (1883), p. 86. 



Etheridge Jr., Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. , 2nd ser., v, pt. 1, p. 47, plates ii, iii. 

 » Bull. Acad. Sc. St. Petersbourg, 1883, tome xxviii, p. 426, 2 plates. 

 » Mem. Gaol. Snrv. N.S.W., Pal. No. 3, 1890, p. 83. 



Palseontologia Indica, Fossil Flora Gondwana Sm., vol. iv, pt. 2, p. 44. 



