478 



K. K1DST0N AND D. T. GWYNNE-VAUGHAN ON 



As a result of a dichotomy the specimen contains two stem axes that are each 

 surrounded by a coating of leaf-bases. The stem of the larger axis is about 15 mm. 

 in diameter and its stele about 5 mm. The latter contains about eighteen xylem 

 strands of the ordinary Osmundaceous type. . . 



The coating of leaf-bases does not exhibit any zones of scale leaves. A few of 

 the outer leaf-bases are fairly well preserved and contain typical Osmundaceous leaf- 

 traces. The elements of the sclerotic rings are homogeneous throughout (text-fig. 4). 

 There is a stout mass of sclerenchyma in the concavity of each of the incurved ends 

 of the leaf-trace and a main series of separate irregularly shaped sclerotic strands in 

 each wing of the stipule. Of these the one nearest the sclerotic ring is considerably 



Text-fig. 4. — Diagrammatic restoration of stipular base of the petiole of Osmundiles sp. from Queensland. 



larger than the others, which diminish in size towards the margin of the stipular 

 wing. A few smaller strands also occur scattered in the substance of the stipule in 

 the neighbourhood of the sclerotic ring. 



Locality. — Oakey Creek, twenty miles west of Toowoomba in S.E. Queensland 

 (the Darling Downs district). 



Horizon. — ? Miocene. 



Osmundites 



sp. 



The specimen, which was about 11 cm. in diameter, contained two stems which 

 had arisen from a dichotomy at a lower level. They are surrounded by a very thick 

 coating of leaf-bases without any zones of scale leaves. The stem is about 30 mm. 

 in diameter and the stele, which was very badly preserved, about 8 mm. It contained 

 about eighteen xylem strands of the ordinary Osmundaceous type. The cortex con- 

 sisted of two zones, the inner narrow and thin-walled, the outer comparatively stout 

 and sclerotic. The leaf-bases contained a narrow sclerotic ring of homogeneous 

 elements and possessed stipular wings which are, however, so badly preserved that 

 the arrangement of the sclerenchyma cannot be made out. 



Locality. — Coleron. Near the sea on the river Fitzroy ; seventy miles from 

 Rockham pton, Queensland. 



Collected by M. Thozet in 1870. 



Horizon. — ? Tertiary. 



