EOCENE EERNS. 



33 



venation, have mncli broader pinnae, and F. pseudojjennaformis Xx^ys, more closely and 

 obliquely set secondary veins. Blechnum Braunii, Ett., from Monte Promina, has similar 

 venation and finely toothed margin ; and Dr. Debey informs me that he 

 has Ferns from Aix-la-Chapelle with a nearly related venation. Heer believes 

 it bears a resemblance to Pecopteris Hookeri^ from Bovey Tracey. Osmunda 

 eoccenica, Saporta,^ from Gelinden, strikingly resembles it, but seems to have 

 been a larger Fern, and is considered distinct by Saporta. 



Pteris eocanica is abundant at Bournemouth in the " fern-l)eds,'' where 

 it is associated with the Polypodiese. It becomes rarer westward, having 

 but once been met with west of the pier, and then only in the highest and 

 remanie beds near the top of the cliff, immediately under the ilagstaff. The 

 specimen from this locality (PI. IV, fig. 5) is dwarfed and attenuated. The 

 abundance of this Fern in the newest and most easterly beds of the Bourne- 

 mouth freshwater series, where it is associated with plants which required 

 much moisture, its rarity in the slightly older beds to the west, which have 

 a less swampy character, its dwarfed and starved appearance in the uppermost 

 beds west of the pier, and its complete absence from all the lower beds in 

 which, with few exceptions, the dicotyledons have been obtained, point to its 

 habitat having been, by preference, of a swampy and marshy character, and 

 near the sea-level. Saporta informs me that at Manosque the closely 

 allied P. jiennaformis is, like this, found associated with Chrysodium 

 Lanzaanum and Osmunda lignitmn. 



I am indebted to Mr. A. Baldry, of Bournemouth, for the specimen, fig. 5, 

 PI. IV, which we at first thought to be distinct, as the pinnae are smaller and 

 narrower, and the secondary veins more widely separated and less diverging. 

 Fig. 6 (PI. IV) represents a terminal pinna, natural size ; fig. 4, the lower 

 part of a frond ; fig. 6 a. enlarged venation. 



Although species of AcrosUchum., Anyiopteris, Gi/mnop-amma, &c., possess similar 

 venation, the characters furnished by this form so closely correspond to what is met with 

 in the recent species of Pteris, that its reference to this genus cannot be doubted. 



Fig. 13.— Pteris 

 cienata. 



Pteius Bournensis, Eft. and Card. Plate IV, fig. 7. 



P.fronde hijminata, pinnulis svperiorihus anyulo acido, reliquis aiignh svhrecio rhaclii 

 adnafis, basi lata se.ssilibus, lanceolaiis, acuminatis, marine inter(/errhna vel leviter 

 imdulata ; nervatione Alethopitendis genuince ; nervo primario dcbili, redo, infra apicem 

 valde attenuato, nervis secundariis sub aupilis acutis orientibus. 



1 ' Flore Heersienne do Gelinden,' Saporta and Marion, 18/8, pi. i, fig. 1. 



