143 
Lindley & Hutton’s type, Ctenis falcata, is exceedingly unlike 
both. 
I shall await with much curiosity further discoveries at Leigh 
Creek, in the hope that they will solve the true systematic posi- 
tion of this curious frond. 
Alethopteris, sp. ind. Pl. vi., figs. 1, 2. 
Obs._Fragment of a particularly well-marked fern, that cer- 
tainly does not possess the typical characters of Alethopteris 
australis, Morris, as we know the latter in Eastern Australia. 
It is distinguished from this plant by the much shorter and 
more rapidly falcate pinnules, their upwardly directed set and 
closely adpressed position. 
The pinnules are short, subfalcate, curved, upwardly directed, 
and touching ; the margins are entire towards the apex, and the 
latter obtuse. The mid-rib in each pinnule is continuous almost 
to the apex, where it slightly evanesces ; the secondary veins are 
from eight to twelve in each pinnule, and once furcate. 
It is almost impossible to ascribe a name to a fragment of this 
description, but possibly the following comparisons may assist in 
its determination on the discovery of more perfect specimens. 
The nearest allies appear to be A. australis, Morris, A. Rosserti, 
Presl., and A. Albertsi, Schimper. Morris describes* the neura- 
tion of A. australis as bifurcate or dichotomous. McCoy, on the 
other hand, writest as follows :—‘‘The veins are much more 
commonly forked only once in the Australian plant, as I figure 
it, than with the second marginal branching, as given by Morris.” 
In the present specimen the veins appear to be once furcate only 
on each pinnule. There is the possibility, therefore, that it may 
be only a variety of A. australis. 
The resemblance is also strong between the Leigh Creek frag- 
ment and Zeiller’s figuret of A. Rosserti, Presl., from the coal 
formation of Tonquin, except again in the neuration, which is 
twice furcate in the latter. Again, equally like is Schenk’s 
figure§ of A. Albertsi, Schimper, from the Wealden beds of 
N.W. Germany. In this species the pinnules are of the same 
semi-falcate outline, and the secondary veins are once bifurcate, 
but, collectively, the pinnules do not present the same degree of 
regularity. 
The pinnules lack the extremely acute and falcate outline of 
those of A. whithiensis, L. & H.; neither are they as strictly 
spear-head-shaped as seen in A. hastata, Phill.,|| nor elongate 
* Strzelecki’s Phys. Descrip. N.S. Wales, &c., 1845, p. 248, t. 7, f. 2a. 
t Prod. Pal. Vict., 1875, Dec. II., p. 17. 
+ Ann. des Mines, 1882, Livr. Sept.-Oct., t. 10, f. 3, 3a. 
§ Beitrage Flora der Vorwelt (Palwontographica), pt. 4, t. 6, f. 4. 
| Geol. “York., 1836; T.,'t. 8, £. 17. 
