298 Prof. A. C. Seward — New Fossil Plant from Cape Colony. 



IT. — A new Genus of Fossil Plants from the Stormberg Series 

 of Cape Colony. 



By A. C. Seward, F.E.S., Cambridge. 

 (PLATE XIV.) 

 f I1HE single specimen which forms the subject of this note was sent 

 J_ to me for examination by Mr. Hewitt, of the Albany Museum, 

 Grahamstown, Cape Colony ; it was found at Cyphergat and presented 

 to the Museum by Mr. S. P. Gardner. Fossil plants from Cyphergat 

 in Cape Colony have been described by Feistmantel and, more 

 recently, by myself 1 from beds containing the remains of a flora 

 assigned to the lihsetic age. Our knowledge of this flora is based on 

 material obtained from the Molteno Beds at the base of the Stormberg 

 Series 2 at Molteno, Stormberg, Cyphergat, and other places. 



The fossil shown natural size in PL XIV, Fig. 1, may be described 

 as follows : A partially carbonized impression of a portion of a 

 bipinnate frond 1 1 cm. long, consisting of a comparatively slender 

 rachis not exceeding 3 mm. in breadth, which gives off sub-opposite 

 linear pinnae at an angle of approximately 45°. The pinnae bear 

 alternate broadly linear pinnules attached by a short stalk ; the 

 substance of the lamina is represented in places by a fairly thick 

 carbonaceous layer. The apex of the pinnules is bluntly rounded, 

 and at the proximal end the edge of the lamina bends inwards rather 

 abruptly towards the stalk (PL XIV, Figs. 1, la-c). There is a well- 

 defined midrib, from which a few simple or forked veins arise at 

 a wide angle. 



The preservation is far from satisfactory, but the thickness of the 

 carbonaceous layer, as seen in some of the pinnules (e.g. PL XIV, 

 Fig. \a), indicates a thick lamina. A supei'ficial examination of the 

 specimen suggested comparison with Bernoullia helvetica, Heer, a species 

 originally described by Heer 3 from the Upper Triassic beds of Switzer- 

 land, and more recently figured by Leuthardt 4 from the Keuper of 

 jNeuewelt near Basel. Professor Zeiller 5 has also described the same 

 type from the Rhsetic flora of Tonkin. The fertile pinnules of 

 Bernoullia are in some cases contracted at the base, and in this respect 

 approach the more definitely stalked segments of the Cyphergat 

 plant ; but a more careful examination of the published figures and of 

 a Swiss specimen kindly given to me by Dr. Leuthardt convinced me 

 that the fossils are generically distinct. They differ in the shape of 

 the pinnules as in the venation ; in Bernoullia the secondary veins 

 are numerous, while in the South African plant they appear to be few 

 and widely separated. Moreover, in the plant shown in PL XIV, 

 Fig. 1, the stalked pinnules are sterile, and differ considerably from 



1 Feistmantel, Abh. JcBn. bijlim. Ges. Wiss. [vii], Bd. iii, 1889 ; Seward, 

 Ann. S. African Mus., vol. iv, 1903. 



2 Bogers & Du Toit, An Introduction to the Geology of Cape Colony, 

 London, 1909. 



:) Heer, Flor. Foss. Helvetia;, p. 88, pi. xxxviii, figs. 1-6, Zurich, 1876. 



4 Leuthardt, Abh. Schweiz. palciont. Ges., vol. xxxi, p. 38, pi. xix, figs. 1-4; 

 pi. xx, figs. 1, 2, 1904. 



8 Zeiller, Flor. Foss. Gites cle Charbon du Tonkin, p. 34, pi. i, figs. 14-16, 

 Paris, 1903. 



