EOCENE EERNS. 
41 
admit several other supposed species. It appears from the figure that the pinna is more 
tapering, and therefore shorter, than those of G. stiriaca, and all the veins more sinuous. 
The indistinct specimen from Cape Lyell has the exact outline of this species. 
G. stiriaca is supposed by linger and Heer to resemble G. prolifera ^ " of tropical 
America,"^ w^hich Eern, hov^^ever, it is vv^ell known, is a native of all the tropics except that 
one. The venation is not uncommon among Eerns, and is met with in Acrosticimm and 
Nephrodium, as vi^ell as in Goniopteris, but the arrangement of the sori is more charac- 
teristic of the latter. In the fossil state it has been found in France, Germany, Italy, &c., 
and seems to characterise principally the Middle and Upper Eocenes, and Oligocene. 
It appears to have been of much larger growth than G. Bunhurii, and possessed 
more numerous and simply curved, instead of sinuous or angulated, veins. The original 
specimens are too indistinct to be satisfactorily refigured, and we have, therefore, repro- 
duced fig. 19 and part of fig. 20 from pi. v, 'Flora of Bovey,' and an unpublished 
enlargement (fig, 21) by Mr. Fitch, of Ivew, v^-ho has placed his original sketches for that 
work at our disposal. 
WooDWARDiA ? VENOSA, Mt. and Gard. Plate X, fig. 5, 5 «. 
W. fronde piimata, lacinis anguste lanceolatis, margine infegerrimis ; nervatione 
Dictyopteridis simpUcis exappendiculata ; nervo primario recto, proiuinenfe, ■nervis 
secundariis brevissi^nis temissimis avgulo acuto egredientibus ; macidis Dictgojjteridis 
Ijluris^'ia tis, in (squalibus. 
Middle Bagshot, Bournemouth. 
Although but one small and not very distinct fragment has been met with, the 
character of the venation is very apparent. The frond may have either been simply 
pinnate or bipinnate. There are a number of species of Pteris, as P. patens, P. decurrens, 
P. denticulata, P. JFoodwardioides, &c., with anastomosing venation and closely similar ; 
we cannot, therefore, be certain that it is really a Woodwardia. 
We have, however, placed it in that genus, because a very beautiful and undoubted 
species of Woodioardia has been met with in the Eocene of Monte Promina, &c., and 
the Aquitanian stage of Switzerland. This form, W. Boessneriana, Unger, resembles 
W. radicans, and diff'ers from ours in the possession of a row of free veins between the 
areolations and the margin. Our species would fall into the group of Lorinseria, Presl, 
of which W. areolata, a native of the United States, from Massachusetts to Florida, is 
the best known, and, with one exception, the only existing type. 
^ Ett., ' Farnkrauter,' pi, cix and ex. , 
2 ' Flora of Bovey,' p, 28. 
