ONYCHIOPSIS. 45 
S. Gépperti is most probably a piece of a pinna of O. Mantelli, 
I have little doubt that the specimens figured by Heer from 
Almargem, Portugal, as Sphenopteris valdensis are fragments of 
O. Mantelli ; they correspond very closely with the coarser pinn 
of the latter species. Cf. e.g. Heer’s figs. 9 and 10, pl. xv.! 
with the large frond from Ecclesbourne, Pl. II. Fig. 1. Possibly 
fig. 11 of Heer represents another species, Ruffordia Géppertt. 
In 1883 Tenison- Woods? published an account of the fossil flora 
of the Coal deposits of Australia; in his list of ferns are included 
two new species, Zrichomanites laxum and T. spinifolium, both of 
which, so far as it is possible to judge from the poor figures, may 
in all probability be referred to Onychiopsis Mantelli. 
Messrs Jack and Etheridge, in their recent work on ‘The 
Geology and Paleontology of Queensland and New Guinea,’’* have 
referred a fern from the Burrum beds of Queensland to Tenison- 
Woods’ species, 7’. daxum; the figure of this plant leads me to 
refer it, with very little hesitation, to the characteristic species of 
the European Wealden beds. The age of the Burrum beds is not 
precisely defined; ‘‘newer than the Permo-Carboniferous, and 
older than the Upper Cretaceous.” * 
Fontaine, in his Monograph on the Potomac Flora, has instituted 
several new species of Kunze’s isolated genus Thyrsopteris. On 
examining his figures of the various types, one cannot help feeling 
that the grounds on which the genus has been chosen are some- 
what insufficient. After speaking of MHeer’s description of 
Thyrsopteris, he notes a close resemblance between some of 
the Potomac forms and the sterile fronds of Kunze’s genus, and 
goes on to say:° ‘‘ These (7.e. the Potomac specimens) I place 
provisionally in the genus Z’hyrsopteris, on account of the great 
resemblance that the shape of the pinnules, the lobing, and the 
nervation show to the sterile forms of the various species deter- 
mined to be Zhyrsopteris by their fructification. As, however, no 
fructification is found in the Potomac species, the placing of these 
plants in the genus must be regarded as provisional.”’ Finally, we 
read: ‘It should be noted that a number of the species of Thyrso- 
1 Sece. Trab. Geol. Portugal, 1881. 
® Proc. Linn. Soc. N. 8S. Wales, vol. viii. pt. i. 1883, p. 37. 
3 Ibid. p. 315. 
4 Ibid. p. 301, 
> Potomac Flora, p. 120. 
