Mesozoic. ] PAL/EONTOLOGY OF VICTORIA. [ Plante, 
PLATES XII. AND XIII. 
Prats XII., Fie. 1; Prare XIII, Fre. 2. 
GANGAMOPTERIS ANGUSTIFOLIA (McCoy). 
[Genus GANGAMOPTERIS* (McCoy). (Class Acotyledones, Sub-class Acrogene. 
Order Filices. Fam. Neuropteride.) 
Gen. Char.—Frond simple or impari-pinnate ; middle pinna spatulate, symmetrical, semi- 
elliptically pointed above, gradually tapering towards the base; lateral pinnew variable, very 
acute, tapering from base, or obliquely ovate, to trigonal or flabelliform, broad above, gradually 
narrowed towards the oblique adherent base, which is never auriculate, but moderately wide and 
embracing ; no midrib; veins coarsely reticulate, many arising from the base, branching as 
they diverge towards the margin, and frequently anastomosing to form an irregular polygonal 
network. | 
Descrrprion.—Very long, narrow, unequal sided, slightly oblique, very gradually 
tapering towards the apex from the widest portion near the base; base slightly 
contracted, embracing, and obliquely truncated. Length, often 9 or 10 inches; width, 
rarely exceeding 1 inch. 
REFERENCE.— = Cyclopteris ? angustifolia (McCoy), An. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 
v. 20, t. 19, f 3 and da, 
The gigantic ferns constituting the genus Gangamopteris were 
originally described by me in a paper in the Annals of Natural 
History for 1847, from a single terminal leaflet having the form and 
netted neuration of the narrow varieties of Glossopteris Browniana, 
but which I pointed out as generically distinct from wanting the 
midrib. I there referred the plant doubtfully to Cyclopteris (as 
Cyclopteris? angustifolia), pointing out, however, the apparently 
generic difference of the anastomosing of the veins. This latter 
character I think I have observed in some of the typical Cyclop- 
tert, but in the present plants it is a marked and constant charac- 
ter. The great numbers of specimens I have lately examined from 
the Victorian locality of Bacchus Marsh suggest, by their varied 
obliquity, that the plant was in all probability impari-pinnate ; the 
symmetrical spatulate examples being either a simple frond or the 
central terminal division of an impari-pinnate frond, of which the 
unequal-sided, oblique examples with broad oblique base of attach- 
* Etymology Tayyapoy, a small round drawnet, and rept, a fern, 
Eee 
