DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 29 



is too large to be contained in any plate. In each case, although the left- 

 hand pinnae are taken, those on the right are equally long. Both figures 

 give the natural size of the parts and the mode of insertion of the ultimate 

 pinnae. In Plate VII, Fig. 2, it will be noted that the pinnules near the 

 principal rachis, and for some distance from it, have the rounded form of 

 the normal Neuropteris linncecefolia of Bunbury. Farther off from the main 

 rachis, and towards the summit of the ultimate pinna?, the pinnules tend to 

 lose their rounded form and finally to pass into normal sterile pinnules. The 

 rounded pinnules are granulated with the sporangia. The ultimate pinnae 

 from lower down on the compound pinna have the pinnules fructified far- 

 ther out from the main rachis or farther towards the summit of the ulti- 

 mate pinna?. The indications are that on ultimate pinna? from portions of 

 the plant still lower than any shown on the specimen, all the pinnules will 

 be fructified and no sterile pinnules will be found on the same pinna? with 

 the fertile ones. As we ascend towards the summit of the compound pinna 

 the fertile pinnules become less and less numerous, until from a little below 

 the middle of the specimen they disappear, all the pinnules being sterile 

 and of the form given in Plate VII, Fig. 1. In accordance with these facts, 

 the diagnosis of the plant should be amended to read: Fertile and sterile 

 pinnules sometimes on the same specimen ; then the fertile pinnules stand next 

 to the main rachis, and become more numerous in lower parts of the com- 

 pound pinna, disappearing towards the summit of the same. The portion 

 of the plant yielding the specimen from which the figures were taken could 

 not have been less than a meter in length and about half a meter in width. 

 I am not able to tell from what locality the specimen now in question 

 comes, but from the character of the rock I should think it was derived 

 from the Gowry Shaft. 



Acrostichides rhombifolius, spec. nov. 



Plate VIII, Figs. 2, 3; Plate XI, Figs. 1-3; Plate XII, Figs. 1, 2; Plate XHI, Figs. 1, 2; 

 Plate XIV, Figs. 1, 2. 



Frond bi- or tripinnate. Principal rachis on the upper side, with a raised 

 border on each side of a rather flat channel, on the under side, convex. Pinna? very 

 long and slender, linear in form, and narrowing slightly both towards the base and 

 apex, subopposite or alternate. Pinnules of the sterile and fertile frouds are of dif- 

 ferent forms. Those of the sterile frond are nearly quadrilateral or rhombic in form, 



