— 513 — 
nmudrib, and passing usually straight, parallel, and close, with rare and 
oblique anastomoses to the border where they number 48-55 to the 
centimeter . 
The characteristic features of the leaves of this species are (1) 
the broadly sessile, cordate base, (2) the elongation of the leaf in 
Taeniopteroid form, (3) the somewhat abruptly acuminate apex, and (4) 
the Taeniopteroid aspect of the very close nervation which passes, in 
most of the fragments, nearly at right angles to the border. 
A fragment including the base ofa leaf is shown in Pl. VII, Fig. 2. 
The general appearance of the specimen suggests the base of Ganga- 
mopteris cyclopteroides var. auriculata, or Glossopteris decipiens (1) 
the only species of the genus hitherto known to possess a somewhat 
cordate and probably sessile leaf base. (2) 
The midribin Glossopteris occidentalis is about 142™". in width at 
the base, thick and densely lineate; and the lateral nerves bend sharply 
outward, while at the same time anastomosing a some elongated 
polygonal mesh near the midrib, then pass straight in a direction 
nearly at aright angle to the midrib, finely parallel, and with very 
greatly elongated narrow meshes, toward the border. The nervation at 
the baseis in all essential respects precisely similar to that near the 
apex, though, as often happens in the leaves of this genus, the 
areolation isa little more distant. 
In short the nervation is characteristically Glossopteroid near 
the midrib, and, superficially, closely Taeniopteroid the rest of the 
border, where, in the specimen figured the nervas count 55 to the 
centimeter. 
A fragment somewhat higher in thefrondis shown in Fig. 4. In 
this example, adetail of whose nervation is shown in Fig. 4a, the 
midrib still preserves a width of nearly 7™"., and the lateral nerves 
after reaching a distance of 8"". from the midrib, are but slightly 
oblique to midrib and border. A portion from the middle of the leaf 
is shown in Fig. 3. In this specimen the midrib, over 9am, in width 
near the lower end, narrows to less than 5"". on reaching the upper 
(1) Feistmantel, Fl]. Gondwana Syst.. vol. IIf. pt. 1. p. 17, pl. xviii, figs, 3-5, pl. xxiv. 
fiz. 6. See also. Arber, The Glossopteris Flora, p. 90. fig. 24. 
(2) The species last named approaches Glossopteris Browniana in the form of the 
middle and upper portions of the leaf:the very oblique nervation is ol that Glosspteris 
iudica ; und the base of the blade is not known to he sessile, 
5500 34 
