65 



Osmunda heerii, Qaudin. 



Bib : Fl. Tert. Helv., Ill, 55, pi. CXLIII, f. 1 : Fl. Foss. Arct., I, 

 f. 15 B. 



pi. I, f. 6-11, pi. VIII, 



In his Tertiary flora of Helvetia Hear figures several specimens of this fern to which 

 Gaudin had already applied the name Qsmunda heerii. This plant is commented upon as 

 being very near to 0. regalis of the present day. The same species has appeared in the 

 Miocene ot northern Greenland and Siberia, and in both of these latter cases Heer comments 

 upon their very remarkable resemblance to 0. regalis. 



In the 1906 collections from the Tulameen river there was a fern which cannot well be 

 separated from this species. It shows, however, much larger pinnules, but this may well be 

 due to conditions of growth, since precisely parallel differences may be found in growing 

 specimens of 0. regalis. One of the characteristic features of 0. heerii is to be found in the 

 serrated margins of the pinnules, and in this respect it seems to be approached by the 

 Tulameen specimen much more nearly than the 0. regalis, as represented by the specimens 

 found in herbaria. But a careful and extended examination of growing specimens of the 

 royal fern has convinced me that such serration is a character of great inconstancy, that it 

 is, in many cases, as well defined as in 0. heerii, and that if the plant were to be subjected 

 to the conditions usually attending fossilization its separated parts would present just the 

 differences which may bo observed in comparing it with the Tulameen specimen. There 

 therefore seems good reason for believing that 0' heerii is nothing less than the ancestral 

 form of the existing royal fern. 



Osmunda macrophylla n. sp. 



This hitherto unpublished species was found in 1887, in the collections of Lambe 

 from the Red Deer river, at the mouth of the Blindman. It could not be correlated with 

 any of the previously observed Osmundas, although it may be identical with some one, par- 

 ticularly 0. heerii. But the shape of the pinnules, and especially the breadth of their bases, 

 seems to prohibit any such association. In the circumstances it has seemed better to 

 assign it a separate name, the justification for which appears in the apparently larger size 

 of the fronds, as indicated by the width of the pinnules. Fig. 15. 



Fig. 15. Osmunda macrophi/la n. sp. 

 Extremity of a fronrl from the Red Deer River. 



9197—9 



;1/]. 



Fig. 16. Osmunda regalis, L. 

 A single pinna showing the form and margin, x 1/1. 



