512 PTERIDOSPERMS, ETC. [CH. 



The data at present available render it advisable to retain 

 Mr Etheridge's name: the comparison vpith Glossopteris lacks 

 confirmation. 



Glossopteris retifera, Feist. Fig. 344. 



In some Glossopteris leaves the anastomosing secondary 

 veins form a coarser reticulum, as in the example represented 

 in fig. 344. The name G. retifera was given by FeistmanteP 

 to Indian fronds of this type; similar forms have been described 

 as G. conspicua and G. Tatei. The type illustrated by G. retifera 

 is recorded also from Permo-Carboniferous rocks in Zululand^ 

 Natal, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, and the Argentine. 



Gangamopteris. 



In 1847 McCoy* described a leaf-fragment from Permo- 

 Carboniferous rocks in New South Wales as Cyclopteris 

 angustifolia. The type-specimen of this. species, which is now 

 in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, has been re-described 

 by Mr Arber*. Subsequently^ McCoy instituted the generic 

 name Gangamopteris for leaves, like that previously referred 

 by him to Cyclopteris, from the Bacchus Marsh Sandstone of 

 New South Wales, but he did not publish a diagnosis of the 

 genus until several years later ^. Feistmantel ^, who has 

 described many species of Gangamopteris from the Lower 

 Gondwana strata of India, slightly modified the original 

 diagnosis. The genus is represented by sterile fironds only. 

 We know nothing of the stem, and such evidence as is available 

 in regard to the form of the fertile leaves is of a circumstantial 

 kind. It is, however, highly probable that Gangamopteris is 

 not a true fern but a Pteridosperm. 



Leaves simple, sessile, varying in shape ; obovate or spathulate, broadly 

 lanceolate or rarely linear; the apex is usually blunt (fig. 345) but 

 occasionally gradually tapered. In general appearance a Gangamopteris 

 leaf is similar to that of Glossopteris indica, the chief distinction being the 



1 Feistmantel (80) Pis. xxvni. A., xli. A. 2 Seward (07). 



3 McCoy (47). * Arber (U22). 5 McCoy (60) p. 107 (footnote). 



6 McCoy (75). ' Feistmantel (79). 



