124, Mr Arber, On the earlier 
work, however, remains as one of the very few real contributions 
to the study of the fossil floras of New Zealand. , 
It has been known, however, for more than half a century, — 
that New Zealand is rich in Mesozoic floras of pre-Cretaceous — 
age. Large collections of these plants were gathered together 
from time to time by the officers of the Geological Survey of the 
islands and by others, and several half-hearted attempts, at one 
time or another, have been made to describe these floras, attempts 
which generally ended in long lists of valueless nomina nuda (see 
p- 180). As the literature on the subject of these pre-Cretaceous - 
floras stands at present, it consists of little more than strings of 
names, applied to fossils which have never been described or figured, © 
names which are therefore meaningless. 
There have, however, been some exceptions. Through the’ 
good offices of Mr Lillie, Mr P. G. Morgan, the Director of the 
New Zealand Geological Survey, has kindly sent me on loan all 
the previously figured specimens in the Collection of the Survey. 
I have also gratefully to acknowledge my indebtedness in this 
matter to Mr J. Allan Thomson, Palzontologist to the Survey, 
for facilitating the loan of these specimens, and for much informa- 
tion as to the localities and to the literature published in New 
Zealand. 
The first step in the revision of these fossil floras has naturally 
been a re-examination of the specimens which have hitherto been 
regarded as types. I propose here briefly to review these specimens 
with the object of sorting out those which are of real value, and 
of further compiling lists of imperfect determinations and of | 
nomina nuda (p. 130). Such names cannot unfortunately be 
entirely ignored, and the lists at the conclusion of this paper have 
at least the melancholy interest that they include terms which 
should never again be applied to any fossil or living plants. 
Osmundaceous Stems. 
There are two fossil plants of which our knowledge is on 
altogether a different plane to that of any other plants from 
New Zealand. These are the two Osmundaceous Fern-stems, 
obtained from the Jurassic rocks near Gore, Otago District, 
Osmundites Gibbiana, K. and G. V., and O. Dunlopt, K. and G. V., 
so named in honour of their discoverers, Mr Robert Gibb, and 
Mr R. Dunlop respectively. These are the only petrified plant 
remains, with the exception of certain post-Jurassic woods, 
so far known from New Zealand. They have recently been fully 
described by Dr Kidston and Prof. Gwynne-Vaughan* conjointly. 
* Kidston and Gwynne-Vaughan, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. Vol. xuv. Pt. 11. 
p- 759, 1907. 
