658 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. iSTo. 984 



to identify doubtful material with previously 

 described forms, especially wben widely sepa- 

 rated either geologically or geographically, 

 since it is subsequently much easier to reduce 

 a new name to synonymy than to disentangle 

 a complex agglomeration that gets distributed 

 through the literature under a single name. 



The Jurassic flora was found in a hard 

 slaty matrix preserving large-sized and clearly 

 outlined specimens, but not showing the vena- 

 tion characters especially well. The collection 

 embraces over sixty forms, of which, however, 

 nearly a score have not been given specific 

 names. The Equisetales are represented by 

 EquisetUes approximatus sp. nov., a form 

 closely resembling E. rajmahalensis Schimper 

 from the Indian Jurassic as well as E. Duvalii 

 Saporta. The Hydropteridese are represented 

 by well-preserved specimens of the wide-spread 

 Jurassic species Sagenopteris paucifolia 

 (Phillips) Ward. Fern fronds are abundant, 

 twenty-five different species being represented. 

 These include a Dictyophyllum; the wide- 

 ranging Jurassic Todites WilUamsoni (Brong- 

 niart) Seward; seven forms referred to Clado- 

 phlehis, four being wide-ranging Jurassic 

 forms and two being new. Three fern spe- 

 cies are identified with well-known forms of 

 Coniopteris; eight are referred to the form- 

 genus Spheiiopteris, four of these being new; 

 two new species are described in Scleropteris; 

 and the doubtful genera Pachypteris and 

 Thinnfeldia are retained with the ferns. The 

 Pachypteris is considered to be identical with 

 P. dalmatica F. v. Kerner, a European Ceno- 

 manian species. The Thinnfeldia, which is 

 described as new and compared with T. 

 rhomhoidalis Ettings., T. indica Eeistm., and 

 T. speciosa (Ettings.), Seward, is not unlike 

 T. granulata Fontaine from the Patuxent 

 formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Virginia. 



Fronds of the Cycadales, which are not espe- 

 cially common in the Arctic Jurassic, consti- 

 tute a prominent element in the Hope Bay 

 flora, some nineteen species being represented. 

 These include a large and abundant entire 

 type of Nilsonia which Halle described as a 

 new species. Except for the fact that our east 

 American Nilsonia densinerve (Font.) Berry 

 seems to have been rarely entire and the Ant- 



arctic form constantly so, there is a similarity, 

 almost amounting to identity, between the 

 two, a fact which Halle has not failed to no- 

 tice. Three forms are referred to Seward's 

 new genus Pseudoctenis, which is close to the 

 American Lower Cretaceous genus Ctenopsis 

 Berry. Four new species are instituted in 

 Zamites for types of fronds often referred to 

 the genus Ptilophyllum. Six forms are re- 

 ferred to Otozamites and there is a new species 

 of Williamsonia, a form identified as Ptilo- 

 phyllum, and an unnamed species of Oycado- 

 lepis. 



The coniferous remains are abundant and 

 include representatives of fifteen species re- 

 ferred to the genera Araucarites, Pagiophyl- 

 lum, Brachyphyllum, Sphenolepidium, Conites, 

 Stachyopitys and Elatocladus. This is the 

 least satisfactory part of the memoir, but as 

 the genera of fossil coniferophyta are in an 

 almost hopelessly tangled state the author can 

 not be blamed for any shortcomings in this 

 respect. The genus Elatocladus with four 

 species is proposed as a convenient term for 

 sterile shoots of the radial or dorsiventral 

 type, which are not certainly referrable to es- 

 tablished genera with known fruiting charac- 

 ters. Like all form-genera this is confessedly 

 artificial and it may well be doubted if in a 

 world where all generic and specific determi- 

 nations of recent as well as fossil forms con- 

 tain a more or less varying personal equation 

 whether it helps to clarify a complex situa- 

 tion. 



Forms conspicuously wanting are Podoza- 

 mites and all traces of Ginhgoales represented 

 in northern floras by several genera such as 

 Ginkgo, Baiera, Phanicopsis, Czehanowshia, 

 etc. These are also wanting or only doubt- 

 fully represented in the fossil floras of India. 

 The abundant Zamites and Otozamites 

 fronds are also consistently smaller types 

 than in northern floras. There are absolutely 

 no traces of Angiosperms. 



Hope Bay is in latitude 63° 15' S. and it is, 

 therefore, the most southerly point furnishing 

 a flora of Jurassic age.* It is, therefore, re- 



8 Members of the Shaekleton Expedition col- 

 lected petrified "wood and recorded the occurrence 

 of a coal seam in latitude 80° S. 



