part 4] AN^ OTTOKARIA-'LIKE PLANT FEOM SOUTH AFRICA. 



285 



12. An Ottokaeia-jak-e Plant from South Afeica. By 

 Hugh Hamshaw Thomas, M.A., F.O.S. (Read May 4th, 

 1921.) 



In the Karharbari Beds (Lower Gondwana) of Passerabhia (India), 

 a very curious and characteristic fossil was found, to which the 

 name of Ottokaria hengalensis was given by Zeiller. It is of 

 interest, not only owing to its unusual form and problematical 

 nature, but also on account of its association with Glo&sopteris 

 indica and our uncertainty as to the reproductive structures of 

 this form. Although leaves nearly allied to G. indica have been 

 found in a large number of localities, not only in India but in 

 Australia, South Africa, and Eussia, fossils of the Otfolcaria type are 

 ver}^ rare, and, in addition to the Indian specimen, only one other 

 example (from Brazil) has been described. The object of this note 



is to record the discovery in South 

 Pig. 1. — Photograpli of Africa of a fossil which seems to be 

 Ottokaria Leslii, sj). nov. closely allied to, if not actually refer- 

 Natural size. able to, the genus Ottoharia. 



The specimen (illustrated in tig. 1 ) 

 was sent by Mr. T. N. Leslie, P.Gr.S., 

 to Prof. A. C. Seward in 1913, and 

 was recently handed to me for in- 

 vestiscation. It occurs as an im- 

 pression in a rather coarse-grained 

 sandstone, and was derived from the 

 Yereeniging Sandstones of the 

 Transvaal. 



The original description and figures 

 of Ottokaria by Zeiller ^^ were pub- 

 lished in 1902, and the specimen 

 was recently refigured and described 

 by Seward & Sahni in their revision 

 of the Indian Gondwana plants,^ to 

 which there is nothing further to add. 

 The Brazilian specimen described by 

 David White ^ was called Ottokaria 

 ovalis White, and was almost iden- 

 tical in size with the head of the 

 present example. Its upper portion was broken away, and it may 

 possibly have possessed a form similar to that described below, 



^ ' Observations sur quelques Plantes Fossiles des Lower Gondwanas ' 

 Palaeontologia Indica, n. s. vol. ii, No. 1 (1902) p. 34 & pi. iv, figs. 9-10, 



^ ' Indian Gondwana Plants : a Revision ' ihid.Yol. vii, No. 1 (1920) p, 12 & 

 pi. ii, fig. 19. 



^ ' Fossil Flora of the Coal Measures of Brazil ' in Final Report of I, C. 

 White, pt. iii, Rio de Janeiro (1908) p. 533 & pi. vii, figs, 7-7 a. 



Q. J. G. S. No. 308. Y 



