PHTLLOPIEEIS 143 



notes the absence of anastomosing venation as a departure from 

 the Glossopteris leaf, and the oblique course of the secondary- 

 veins as a means of distinguishing it from Taniopteris. Saporta's 

 diagnosis differs but little from the earlier description by 

 Brongniart : — 



" Frondes vel pinnse frondium plus minusve lanceolatse, margine 

 integerrimse, nervo medio sursum attenuato instructae ; nervis 

 secundariis costa media egredientibus, oblique deourrentibus, 

 curvatis, pluries furcato-ramosis nee inter se anastomosatis." 



Phyllopteris acutifolia, sp. nov. 



Type. Imperfect leaflets. In the British Museum. PI. IX. Fig. 6. 



Leaflets linear- or ovate-lanceolate, tapering at the lower end 

 into a short stalk; midrib very distinct in the lower half, but 

 gradually becoming less conspicuous towards the apical portion; 

 lateral veins given off obliquely, and frequently dichotomizing 

 as they curve towards the entire margin of the leaflet. 



In the best specimen of this species shown in PI. IX. Fig. 6, 

 ■we have an imperfect example of a single leaflet, which in shape 

 agrees fairly closely with Phyllopteris PMllipsii, Brong., from the 

 Middle Sandstone and Shale of East Yorkshire. Phillips described 

 this Yorkshire fossil as having anastomosing veins, but, as already 

 noted, Brongniart does not admit such anastomosis and places 

 the specimens in a genus characterized by the absence of reticulate 

 veins.' 



Nathorst has recorded certain leaflets from Sweden which may 

 be compared, as regards shape and venation, with the present 

 species, e.g. Thinnfeldia rhomboidalis, Ett., ? Sagenopteria undulata, 

 Nath., as represented in pi. xix. fig. 2 of the "Floran vid Bjuf '" 

 and in pi. ii. fig. 3 of the "Floran vid Hoganas."^ This latter 

 species should be compared with S. angmtifolia, Zig. Nathorst's* 

 fig. 2, pi. xix. and Zigno's figs, in pi. xx. Flor. foss. Oolit. are 



' See remarks on Glossopteris Phillipsii by Bunbury, Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. 

 vol. -rii. 1851, p. 184. 

 ^ Sver. Geol. TJudersokn. 4to. 1878. 

 3 Ibid. 1878. 

 « Ibid. 1886. 



