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PEOCEEDLNGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Mar. 20, 



three-fourths of the collection. The Fruits and Seeds, of which the 

 specimens are pretty numerous, but obscure and difficult to determine, 

 are reserved for further examination. I may observe, however, that, 

 though numerous in individuals, they seem to be little varied in form 

 and character, and present no outward evidences of a high organiza- 

 tion. 



The general remarks which form the latter part of this paper 

 are founded, I must observe, not merely on the close examination 

 which I have given to the specimens herein described, but on a 

 general survey of the whole. It is possible that a more minute 

 examination of the remaining fossils (the Fruits and Seeds) may 

 partially modify some of the conclusions I have drawn, — but not, I 

 think, to any very material extent. 



FEKNS. 



1 (a). Glossopteeis Beowniasta, var. Indica, Ad. Brongn. Hist. Veg, 

 Foss. p. 223, pi. 62. f. 2. PI. VIII. figs. 1-4. 

 This, as appears from the very numerous specimens in the collec- 

 tion, is one of the most common plants of the supposed Jurassic beds 

 of Nagpur. Excepting one doubtful fragment from Kampti, all the 

 specimens are from Silewa<ia, and are very numerous, of large size, 

 and in a fine state of preservation ; yet even among these it is not usual 

 to find a frond with both extremities perfect. One specimen, though 

 broken at both ends, still measures 14 inches in length, and must 

 have measured at least 17 inches when perfect. Another (almost 

 perfect) is 14 inches long; the largest I have seen is 16 inches 

 long in its present state (with the apex broken off), and must cer- 

 tainly have been 18 inches. On the whole, from a comparison of 

 numerous specimens from this locality, we may say that the full- 

 grown fronds were from 10 to 18 inches in length (exclusive of the 

 stalk), and seldom more than 2| inches in their greatest breadth. 

 The outline of the frond in all these fine specimens from SilewaYZa 

 is narrower, more lanceolate, and more tapering to a point, than in 

 Brongniart's original Australian plants, and even than in his figure 

 of the Indian variety (pi. 62. fig. 2). Like the Australian plant, 

 however, it always tapers very gradually to the base, passing almost 

 insensibly into the stalk (of which but a small portion is preserved in 

 any specimen that I have seen) ; and the greatest breadth is generally 

 above the middle. The apex of the frond, wherever it is preserved, 

 always tapers regularly into a very acute point. 



The midrib is remarkably broad, but flatfish, and not very promi- 

 nent, strongly striated, tapering very gradually upwards, and reaching 

 quite to the point. Morris long since remarked (in Count Strzelecki's 

 • New South Wales/ p. 248) that the venation of the specimens 

 examined by him did not altogether agree with Brongniart's descrip- 

 tion, and that the reticulation of the lateral veins was not confined to 

 the neighbourhood of the midrib, but that they anastomosed 

 repeatedly at various distances between the midrib and the margin. 

 Brongniart has since repeated (in his ' Tableau des Genres de Veg. 

 Foss.') his original character of the genus, without taking any 



