52 



BRITISH EOCENE ELORA. 



as if they were the margins of the leaf; for example, ' Lignites of Bovey,' pi. vi, fig, 2, 

 'Elora of Skopau,' pi. ix, figs. 2 <5, 2, 3 ; 'Elora des Zsilythales,' pi. i, figs. 2, 3 ; and in 

 each case he has given it a different name. We find it described by him as Aspidium, 

 Pecopteris (in the belief that it was a Hemitelia), Bryandra, and Osmunda. The last 

 name did not appear in his works until two years after its true affinity was pointed 

 out by Stur ; and yet it so exactly resembles the wide-spread and well-known 

 0. javanica that not even a good specific distinction can be pointed out. It might, 



Fig. 22. — Bryandra rigida, Heer Fig. 23. — Aspidium lignitum, Heer Fig. 24. — Osmunda lignitum 



(Skopau). (Skopau). (Bournemouth). 



perhaps, have been thought that the invariable absence of any traces of spores on the 

 pinnae would at least have directed his attention more especially to those genera which 

 >have fructification like Osmunda. When determining the Bovey plants Prof. Heer 

 "sought in vain for sori amongst many hundreds of pinnules," and hesitated to name it 

 Hemitelia, "till the fruits are found, which certainly will be soon" (p. 31). 



In the ' Elora Eossilis Arctica ' Heer compares a fragment named by him Pecopteris 

 Torellii with this Fern ; but the two do not at all resemble each other. 



This fossil Osmunda appears to have been simply pinnate, the barren pinnae cuneate 

 at the base, slightly stalked, with sharply-toothed margin, and of almost coriaceous 

 texture. 



It has been frequently described, for it is met with in many localities of Erance and 

 Germany, from the Tongrian and Aquitanian stages. It was not a Miocene Eeru in 

 Europe, so far as we know at present, but was essentially characteristic of the Middle 

 Eocene and Oligocene. Notwithstanding its great abundance, fertile pinnae have not been 

 remarked, and only in one instance (0. Grutschreiberi) have the pinnaa been found attached 

 to the rachis. 



A separate specific name appears almost superfluous, for the fossil species so closely 

 resembles some of the forms of Osmunda javanica, Blume, as to be indistinguishable. In 

 the latter the pinnae are petiolated, and very readily become detached, leaving a pit-like 

 scar on the stem, and this structural character, rare in Osmimda, seems to account satis- 

 factorily for the detached state in which the fossil pinnae have been found. The fertile 

 pinnae in the living plant are made up of numerous sessile clusters of too dense a nature, 



