170° 
FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FOSSIL FLORA 
OF TASMANIA 
Part 1. 
[By R. M. Jounston, F.L.S.] 
The following descriptions and observations are principally 
based upon collections made recently in a tour of examination 
of the rocks in the southernmost part of the island, and 
particularly that portion lying between Southport and South 
Cape. Some of the plants referred to, however, have been 
obtained from the coal measures near Spring Bay, and others 
from the tertiary leaf beds underlying the basaltic cap at the 
Forest, near Glenora railway station. 
PrEcoPpTERIS LUNENSIS, nov, sp. PI. 1, figs. 5, 6, 7. 
Frond or Pinna? 3—3} in length; 46 lines broad, symme- 
trical, the larger ones linear-lanceolate, or lingulate; the smaller 
ones sometimes narrowly spathulate; commonly tapering 
gradually upwards to pointed or bluntish apex, and constricted 
rather abruptly towards the short stem; texture somewhat mem- 
branaceous ; margins simple, never incised or lobed, although 
occasionally wavy or slightly undulating; mid-rib firm, 
evanescing at apex; veins free, fine, distinct, arising from mid- 
rib at an acute angle, and then curving outwards to margin, 
each primary nerve bifurcate, or branching dichotomously. 
One remarkable example of these fronds is divided, or dicho- 
tomised within an inch of the apex, each division being 
marked with the same simple characters exhibited in the 
lower undivided portion. 
Obs.—This interesting fern occurs in the greatest abundane 
in the shales associated with the four-feet coal seam just 
opened out near Ida Bay, Southport. These shales are 
replete only with this one form. Two other associates occur, 
sparingly, viz., Zeugophyllites elongatus (Morris) and Vertebraria 
Australis. In the black shales, further east at Southport, I 
have also discovered the fronds of P. Lunensis, but here they 
are found sparingly associated with Vertebraria Australis. 
The latter occurs in these Southport beds in the most 
wonderful profusion, as in the shales of Port Cygnet a short 
distance to the north-east. It is probable that the simple 
fronds of P. Lunensis belong to a tufted form, as, in the 
thousands of examples examined by me, I have not been able 
to trace attachment as in bipirmate, dichotomous, or compound. 
species. The only kind of attachment which might break up 
so completely, by pressure, would be that exhibited in the zig- 
zag dichotomy of such forms as the existing Gletchenia 
Cunninghami, or G. dicarpa. 
The nearest ally with which I am acquainted appears to be 
Pecopteris caudata (mihi) occurs in the York Plains shales. 
The latter species, however, appears to be of a more coriaceous 
