Mr. Clarke's Communication, ^c. 07 



tlie genus in question at our last meeting ; and I now prove 

 that it possesses all those characters (including the furcation 

 near the base of some of the secondary nerves^ underlined 

 strongly in Mr. darkens manuscripts)^ by laying the speci- 

 men again on the table, for the satisfaction of those present, 

 and by giving Dr. ]Mueller's written testimony* that he had 

 compared the specimen with Brongniart's definition, and 

 finds my previous determination rigidly exact on the strictest 

 view of the genus — for the satisfaction of those at a distance. 

 Having now, I hope, satisfactorily vindicated the generic 

 character of our Victorian Tceniopteris, Ave may consider the 

 next point in the same paragraph, namely, Mr. Clarke's pro- 

 test against those geologists ^^who maintain that a formation 

 " so abmidant in zoological fossils as the Jurassic is found here, 

 '' where no one in any part of the Australian continent has ever 

 " detected one single species, on the strength of the evidence 

 " derived from a few (probably not six in all) species of plants, 

 " the true description of which does not agree in all things with 

 " the typical characters of the genera under which the species 

 " are ranked.'^ On this I would remark — 1st. That the num- 

 ber of species of plants, described by competent authorities in 

 English and German books, from the coal beds of Australia is 

 not six, but twenty-three. All of these are more allied to 

 oolitic than to palseozoic types, and of five entire genera of 

 them — Adz. : Glossopteris , Taniopteris , PJnjUotheca, Zeugo- 

 plnjllites, and Vertebraria — no single species has ever been 

 found in any undoubted palaeozoic coal-field in any part of 

 the world; while, of the other genera, two species are scarcely 

 separable by any tangible characters from species of the oolitic 

 coal-beds of Scarborough. 2nd. The very nature of generic 

 groups is such that no naturalist expects all the species of a 



* (Copy of note from the Government Botanist to Professor McCcyy.) 



Melbourne Botanical and Zoological Gardens, 

 21st June, 1860. 

 My very dear Sir — 



To so ■world-famed celebrity amongst palteontological authors as 

 yourself, it is perfectly superfluous to state that the Victorian fossil deter- 

 mined by you as an undescribed species of Tcenioi^teris, accords fully with 

 the geiiei-ic diagnosis originally published by Brongniart (Prodr. 10); but as 

 you were particularly desirous that I should compare this new species of the 

 genus Taniiopterk with recorded definitions, I gladly responded to your 

 request , and l)eg to give it as my ojiinion that I regard the T. Daintreei in no 

 way diiferent from its congeners. 



Most regardf lUly, dear Professor, yours, 



(Signed) Feed. Mueller 



Professor McCoy, &c., &c. 



H 



