Professor A. C. Seward—Fossil Plants from Egypt. 255 
in the basal part of the fronds is much less regular and less rectangular 
than in Fig. 1. Though it is, as a rule, unwise to institute a new 
species on so small a fragment, I am disposed to suggest the name 
C. egyptiaca as a distinctive des ‘ignation for the first example of this 
genus from the continent of Africa, which seems to differ from the 
widely distributed C. meniscordes in the arrangement of the veins in 
the continuous patt of the lamina. It is, however, possible that the 
specimen is specitically identical with Brongniart’s species C. meniscordes. 
A short account of the geological range of Clathropteris and of other 
members of the Dipteridinse may be found in a paper by Miss Dale 
and myself published in 1901.1 ‘The genus Clathropteris occurs 
abundantly i in Rheetic rocks in many parts “of the world; it is found 
also in strata of Liassic age. So far as it is possible to form an 
opinion as to the age of the rocks from a single fragment of a frond, 
the probability would seem to be in favour of a Rhetic age. It is, 
however, impossible to speak with confidence from an examination of 
the data at present available. Mr. Hume, of the Egyptian Geological 
Survey, who has read a proof of these notes, writes in a letter dated 
May Ist, 1907 :—‘‘ Clathropteris was collected in such close relation 
to the Cretaceous (Campanian) beds that I regard the sandstone in 
which it was found also as Upper Cretaceous, but we are sadly in 
need of further evidence.” There is no reason why Clathropteris 
egyptiaca, which closely resembles the recent genus ee vs, should 
not have existed during the Cretaceous period, though such fossils as 
agree most nearly with the Nubian specimen have hitherto been 
recorded from lower horizons. 
Z 
— 
\ \ 
» 
f 
2a 
Specimen II. Figs. 2 and 2a. (No. 10,547.) Found on the side of 
a hill about 27 mie south of east of Allaci, a station on the Nile 
between Aswan and Wadi Halfa; speaking roughly, latitude 22° 30’ N. 
* Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1901. 
