( 469 ) 



XVI.— On the Fossil Osmundaceae. By R. Kidston, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., 



Foreign Mem. Imper. Mineralogical Society of Petrograd, Hon. Sec. R.S.E. ; 

 and D. T. Gwynne-Vaughan, M.A., F.R.S.E., M.R.I. A., Professor of Botany, 

 University College, Reading. 



(MS. received May 25, 1914. Read June 15, 1914. Issued separately December 9, 1914.) 



[Plates XLL-XLIV.] 



PART V.* 



The present part of this memoir contains descriptions of four additional specimens 

 of Osmundites which have been obtained from various sources. 



We are indebted to Dr G. Nathorst for the material of Osmundites spetsbergensis, 

 Nathorst MS., which was first collected by Dr G. Nordenskiold on the Spitzbergen 

 Expedition of 1890 at Nordenskioldsberg, and subsequently by Dr B. Hogbom in 1910 

 at Van-Mijensberg, Spitzbergen. v 



Our thanks are also due to Dr A. Rothpletz, Director of the Geologisch-palaeonto- 

 logische Staatssammlung, Miinchen, for kindly placing in our hands the type 

 specimen of Osmundites Carnieri, Schuster, for investigation and redescription. 



With regard to the two remaining fossils, one was brought to our attention by 

 Dr Fernand Pelourde, and has been kindly placed at our disposal by M. Lecomte, 

 Director of the Museum d'histoire naturelle, Paris, in which collection the specimen 

 is preserved. The other was found by Mr W. Benson, who at the suggestion of 

 Professor M. J. Benson, Holloway College, communicated it to us for examination. 

 To each of these we tender our sincere thanks. 



Osmundites spetsbergensis, Nathorst, sp. 

 (Pis. XLI.-XLIII.) 



1910. Osmunda spetsbergensis, Nath., " Beitr. z. Geol. d. Baren-Insel, Spitzbergens und Konig- 

 Karl-Landes," Bull. Geol. Institut, Upsala, vol. x. p. 382, sine descr. 



Our material consisted of several pieces of soft rock composed of a substance 

 comparable to a fossil peat which could easily be split into thin layers. Its substance 

 was formed of the detached petioles and laminae of the Osmundites, but also 

 contained remains of a few other plants. In addition to the peat-like material, one 



* Part I., Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xlv. part iii. pp. 759-780, pis. i.-vi., 1907. Part II., idem, vol. xlvi. 



part ii. pp. 213-232, pis. i.-iv., 1908. Part III., idem, vol. xlvi. part iii. pp. 651-667, 1909. Part IV., idem, 

 vol. xlvii. part iii. pp. 455-477, 1910. 



TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. L. PART II. (NO. 16). 67 



