TERTIARY FLORA OF CHILE 119 



upper Oligocene or lower Miocene in age and would consider 

 this flora as probably of upper Eocene age and the flora of 

 the Chilean coal measures, as previously stated, lower Mio- 

 cene in age and corresponding to the Aquitanian or Burdi- 

 galian stages of Europe. 



NEW OR NOTEWORTHY SPECIES 

 Pteridophyta 



Class LEPTOSPORANGIAT^ 



Order POLYPODIALES 



Family CYATHEACE^ 



Genus CYATHOIDES Berry, gen. nov. 



Cyathoides thyrsopterioides Berry, sp. nov. 



PLATE I Figs. 1-3 



These fragments undoubtedly belong to the family Cy- 

 atheaceae. Since, however, the different members of the 

 family show much convergence in foliar characters, and the 

 tribes are differentiated upon soral and sporangial features 

 not preserved in the fossil, it becomes impossible to reach a 

 conclusive opinion as to their generic allocation. In so far 

 as the meager material permits a judgment 'the fossil agrees 

 more closely with the genus Thyrsopteris than with the 

 other genera of the family, but in the absence of fruiting 

 material I hesitate to go beyond recognizing this resemblance 

 in the specific name chosen for the species, since Thyrsopteris 

 is now monotypic and confined to the Juan Fernandez 

 islands, and most of the fossil forms that were formerly 

 referred to this genus are now regarded as being based upon 

 too slender evidence. Moreover other genera of Cyathea- 

 cese are abundant in South America at the present time, 

 particularly in the "montafia" country of the eastern Andean 

 slopes and these, apriori, would be more likely to occur in the 

 Tertiary flora of southern Chile when the climate was 

 warmer than it is at present. 



