— 535 — 
the obliquity of the plane of the blade to the direction of the pe- 
tiole, as shown very clearly in Zeiller’s photograph, and which ac. 
counts for the partly broken base of the slightly overlapping blade 
in our specimen. 
The South American specimen evidently represents a blade ofa 
thick fleshy consistence. This is shown both by the coaly residue on 
the one side (obverse) of the fossil and by the almost entire absence 
of traces of nervation om this surface. On the other hand this gra- 
nular carbonaceous residue which encrusts this surface of the fossil 
is largely occupied, beginning at some distance within the border 
and extending well in toward the petiole, by the impressions of 
small oval bodies of considerable relative thickness, 1 milimeter 1.25 
milimeter in length and a little over 5 milimeters in width, lying 
parallel to the direction of the nervation, and corresponding to the 
meshes shown in the counterpart, the distal ends being a little wider. 
A small round or slightly oval point is very indistinctly seen a 
little above the middle on a number of the impressions. 
It is difficult to account for the bodies described above except by 
the hypothesis that they are sporangia, and that the evidently thick 
fleshy lamina belongs to a sporangiferous organ In proportions these 
bodies are comparable to the sporangia described by Arber on the 
scale leaves of Glossopteris, though they differ by their more regular 
contour and radiate position. 
From the evidence cited above it appears that the genus Oftto- 
karia is based on certain long-pedicellate, more or less round, fleshy 
laminae, which are probably sporangiferous. Of the generic identity 
of the Indian and Brazilian species there can be no doubt, though in 
the only specimen yet found of the former sporangia may not be 
sufficiently developed to be observed. The small dudies on the lamina 
seem to becomparable to the microsporangia of cycads, and the genus 
is, I believe, to be associated with the pteridosperms or cycads, rather 
than with Whittleseya, as first proposed. They are also probably 
comparable to Plinthiotheca, Zeiller, and Grand’Eury’s Andros- 
tachys. 
The points in common between Oftokaria ovalis and the specimens 
illustrated on Pl. vii. figures 5 and 6, as Glossopteris sp., strongly 
argue for a close if not congeneric relationship between the two 
fossils. Ottokaria may well represent a sporangiferous organ of Glos- 
sopteris or Gangamopteris, both of which are probably Pterido- 
spermic. 
