REPORT OF TEE CHIEF ASTRONOMER 813 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 25a 



as belonging to some endogenous plant, the nature of which could not be deter- 

 mined. 



PlNUS, sp. 



On the opposite side of 1433 is a single leaf of a pine. The same leaves 



1428 T 1428 , , ,„. x , . , 



again appear m specimen . In there is a seed (Fig. 1) which appears 



5 3 



Fig. 1. Pinus sp. A seed, probably of a pine, x 4. 



to be that of a pine, though the impression is not a very good one, and it may 

 belong to the same species as the leaves just referred to. 



] 428 



. Gleichenia gilbert-thompsoni, .bont. 



Plate IX. 



Among the collections of 1905 there were a large number of fragments of 

 various sizes, from locality 1428, representing the bipinnate frond of a fern. 

 In a few instances these were so large and complete as to permit of a ready 

 recognition of all the essential characteristics. The description obtained from 

 these latter is as follows: — 



Frond twice pinnate; the rachis upwards of 7mm. broad; pinnae 1-3 cm. distant 

 and widely spreading at angles of 76°-90°, the latter apparently the result of displace- 

 ment, upwards of more than 10 cm. in length; the rachis 0-5 mm. broad and very 

 slender, linear, 11 mm. broad at the base and above the middle gradually tapering 

 toward the apex which is not shown; in the longest, 6 mm. broad at a distance of 10 

 cm. from the base. Pinnules crowded but not strictly contiguous, distinct, attached 

 by the full width of the broad base; not decurrent; 5 mm. long and 2-5 mm. wide; 

 oblong, abruptly rounded at the broad apex or more rarely triangular and obtuse as 

 the result of drying before burial; at first horizontal or at an angle of 89°, gradually 

 ascending and toward the apex becoming 65° ; terminal pinnules not represented in any 

 of the specimens; venation simple with free and submarginal terminations; sori not 

 represented. 



This plant belongs to the genus Pecopteris, which Brongniart established 

 in 1828. To it he assigned a large number of related species ranging from the 



