EOCENE FERNS. 



45 



America, where it is common ; and G. dlchotoma, according to Hooker, is of " tropical and 

 subtropical regions, almost universal, in the New and in the Old Worlds, Pacific Islands, 

 and as far north as Japan." A note by S. Hayes, in the British Museum Herbarium, 

 informs us that the former grows in extensive patches along the line of the Panama 

 Railway. 



The genus Gleichenia appears to have reached its maximum development in Europe 

 in Pre-eocene or so-called Cretaceous times, and then to have died out or migrated, since 

 no species have been met with in the Miocene. Saporta has found similar fragments in 

 the gypsum of Aix, in Provence. Eragments are also met with at Aix-la-Chapelle, which 

 closely resemble it, but are stated by De Bey, after comparing specimens, to be all 

 more or less distinct. 



The distribution of this Eern in England is almost limited to a thin band, only a few 

 inches thick, in the leaf-patch under the Highcliff Mansions at Bournemouth. In this 

 layer it was abundant, and numerous specimens were obtained by residents, in some of 

 whose collections they are still preserved. It was only after an interval of many years that 

 some small fragments were found last autumn, the result of extended digging in a 

 neighbouring patch. Its restricted distribution here should be taken into account in 

 generalising on the absence of Gleichenice in the Miocene of Europe. 



The position in which the remains are found, overlying a marly bed, penetrated every- 

 where by its rootlets, seems to imply that it tlourished in a considerable patch in a wet 

 clayey hollow. 



Mr. Wanklyn kindly lent the specimens figs. 1, 3, 4, 6, PI. VI ; Mr. Pender 

 figs. 2 and 5 ; and the Woodwardian Museum figs. 2, 3, 4, PI. X. 



Anemia subcretacea {Saporta). Plates VIII and IX. 



AsPLENiUM SUBCRETACEUM, Saporta. Flor. Foss. Sezanne, Me'm. Soc. Ge'ol. France, 



3e ser., vol. viii, p. 315, pi. xxiii, fig. 4. 1868. 



Gymnogramma Haydenii, Lesquereuoe. U. S. Annual Report, 1871, p. 295 and 



Tertiary Flora, U. S. Geol. Survey of the 

 Territories, vol. vii, p. 59, pi. v, figs. 1 — 3. 

 1878. 



A. stipite dichotovia, fronde hi-tripinnata, pinnis ovato-oUongis, pinmdis adnato- 

 sessilibus, subdecurreniibiis lanceolatis vel lanceolato-linearibus, acuviinatis, grosse dentatis 

 vel inciso-lobatis, lobis acutis integerrimis vel crenulatis ; loborum nervatione more 

 Cydopteridis simpKcis aqualis, nervis tennissimis valde congestis, mediano vix prominente. 



Middle Bagshot, Bournemouth. 



The materials for the determination and description of this Eern are abundant and 



