XXXIX ] PTILOPHYLLUM 515 



P. affinis and P. rigida are almost certainly indistinguishable 

 from P. cutchensis. Feistmantel 1 dealt in detail with the genus 

 Ptilophyllum: he wrote, 'with Schimper and Schenk I therefore 

 look upon this genus as an Indian type especially characterised 

 by its... more or less slender leaves, angustate towards the apex 

 and base, and petiolate, with regularly adfixed leaflets.... The 

 leaflets are equal to each other, for the most part elongate linear, 

 and auriculate and free at the upper angle at the base, but adfixed 

 at the lower angle, and each is decurrent behind the upper angle 

 of the leaflet next below it, thus the leaflets are almost imbricate. 

 The veins are rather numerous, simple, and forked, and more or 

 less divergent 2 .' Feistmantel distinguishes certain varieties of 

 P. cutchense (fig. 588, A, C), none of which appear to be well 

 defined. A specimen from the Rajmahal Hills with unusually 

 long pinnae, the frond having a breadth of 8 cm., is described 

 as Ptilophyllum acutijolium var. maximum 3 , but it differs in no 

 important feature from the smaller and commoner form. The 

 next point to be considered is the variability of certain species 

 referred by Feistmantel to Otozamites. He figures specimens from 

 the Jabalpur group as 0. Hislopi Feist, ex Old. MS., 0. gracilis 

 (Kurr), 0. angustatus Feist, (fig. 588, B) and 0. distans*. An 

 examination of the figured specimens leads me to regard 0. Hislopi 

 and 0. gracilis as identical with the Ptilophyllum fronds: the 

 pinnae exhibit no distinguishing features and there is no reason 

 for a specific, still less a generic, separation. Otozamites angustatus 

 is indistinguishable from Otozamites sp. as figured from the Madras 

 coast and from Ptilophyllum cutchense, P. cutchense var. curvi- 

 folium and var. minimum. The drawings reproduced in fig. 6a, 

 PL x. of the Madras flora 5 and in fig. 8a, PL vi. of the Jabalpur 

 flora 6 showing auriculate bases are inaccurate: in all the fronds 

 named the pinnae are straight with rounded edges precisely as 

 in Ptilophyllum. The conclusion forced upon me by a com- 

 parison of the actual specimens is that the Indian fronds 

 are not separable into well-defined species and should all be 

 included in Ptilophyllum cutchense. Moreover in this compre- 



1 Feistmantel (76 2 ). 2 Ibid. (76 2 ) p. 42. 



3 Ibid. (II 2 ) PL XL. figs. 1, 2. 4 Ibid. (77 2 ) p. 94, Pis. v. vi. 



5 Ibid. (79). 6 Ibid. (77*). 



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