148 TEMPSKYA. 



V. 2299. Small fragment of pinna. Ecclesbourne. Rufford Coll. 



V. 2345 and V. 2345 /. Small piece of rachis with a few pinnae ; 

 somewhat intermediate in form between PI. IX. Fig. 2 and PL VII. 

 Fig. 5. Ecclesbourne. Ru/ord Coll. 



V. 2375. A single pinna, 3'6 cm. long, of uniform breadth; 

 pinnules show faint traces of venation which may possibly be of 

 the Cladophlelis type ; there is the same wavy or slightly-lobed 

 margin as in PI. VII. Fig. 5 (V. 2809). Ecclesbourne. 



Ru/ord Coll. 



Genus TEMPSKYA, Corda. 

 [Flor. Vorwelt, 1845, p. 81.] 



Corda proposed this term for four specimens of fossil ferns dis- 

 covered by Tempsky. 



He included the genus in the family Phthor opt er ides, and denned 

 it as follows : 



' ' Truncus .... Rhachis rotundata, plicata vel alata, cortice 

 crassiuscula, fasciculis vasorum ternatis, majori clauso vel lunulato 

 et supra incurvo, minoribus oppositis lunulatis. Radices minutae 

 numerosissimse ; fasciculo vasorum centrali unico." 



The older name Endogenites, used by Sprengel * and Brongniart 2 

 in 1828, was chosen by Stokes and Webb 3 for MantelPs specimens, 

 which have since been referred to Corda's genus, as expressive of 

 their opinion that the fossils were pieces of some Monocotyledonous 

 stem. Mr. Starkie Gardner 4 in alluding to certain examples of 

 " Endogenites" in the British Museum, to which Mantell probably 

 referred in his remarks on Monocotyledonous stems in the English 

 AVealden, speaks of them as "of course Cycadeous." If he 

 refers to the common form of Endogenites erosa, there can be no 

 question of Cycadean affinity ; the structure is undoubtedly that of 

 a fern. It would be difficult to give any satisfactory definition of 

 the genus Tempsky a ; and seeing that such specimens as are 



1 Commentat. Psarolithus. p. 21. 



2 Prodrome, p. 136. 



3 Trans. Geol. Soc. ser. ii. vol. i. p. 423. 



* Brit. Assoc. Report, 1886, p. 3 (reprint). 



