48 
BRITISH EOCENE ELORA. 
L.fronde fertili superne simpliciter, inferne bi-vel ternato-pinnata,pinnis simplicibus vel 
bi-tripartitis, lacmiis integris, dentatis, fructiferis spicas lineari-ohlongas compressas 
obticsiusculas formatis ; fronde sterili inaequaliter hi-tri-quadri-partita vel simplice, 
imdidata ; lobis incequilongis^ sub angulis acutis, variis divergentibus, e basi plus minusve 
dilatata, elongato-lanceolatis, apice obiusis ; nermtione Cgclopteridis composita, nervis 
primariis inaquilongis subflexuosis ; nervis secundariis densis, sub angulis acutissimis 
orieniibus, prominentibiis tridichotomis. 
Middle Bagshot, Bournemoutli. 
The pinnse in this species, as in most Lggodia, are variable, and may be entire 
when little developed or cleft palmately into two, three, or four divisions. All these 
forms are represented on PI, VII, and might have occurred on the same plant. The 
lobes are usually unequal, and diverge from each other at angles of from 30° to 60°. 
They are narrow, lanceolate, sometimes very elongate, generally widened at the base, 
where they are confluent, undulate, more or less acuminate, but sometimes obtuse at the 
terminations. The venation, enlarged in fig. 6, is that of Cgclopteris composita. The 
primary veins are divergent and curved from the base, sinuous, attenuated upwards, 
excurrent or lost in the lamina (fig. 7). The secondary veins are close together, and given 
off at acute angles of from 10° to 30°, thrice forked, and so sharply defined throughout 
their whole course that their ramifications are discernible without the aid of a lens. The 
lobes of the fertile pinnse are petiolated (PL X, fig. 11) ; in the upper part solitary or 
undivided, but in the lower part two or three occur together or are twice or thrice 
divided. The pinnules are linear, elongated, rather obtuse, and finely toothed on the 
margin, and the rachides were not winged, A small fragment was figured by Heer 
from the Eocene beds of Skopau. His enlargement is in form and venation identical 
with ours, and they cannot be specifically separated, as was indeed first pointed out by 
Heer^ himself. A comparison, by Lesquereux, of actual specimens from Bournemouth 
has shown, as appeared evident from the plates and description, that Z. neuropteroides 
and the English species were one. Lesquereux says^ that " it is positively identical." 
Dr. Crie also has found it in the Eocene " Gres de la Sarthe." Other allied species, 
L. parvifolium and L. exquisittmi, have been found at Aix in Provence, and Count 
Saporta informs us that the fertile fronds in these are identical with the British form. 
Since pinnae are comparatively rare in all these widely separated localities we may infer 
that Lygodiim had a still greater geographical range in Eocene times. 
The two fossils described by Watelet as Lggodium, from the Paris Basin, belong to 
one species, and this bears little resemblance to any belonging to that genus. 
L. Kaulfussi appears nearly allied to the form described as Miocene. Heer, in his 
' Tertiarfiora der Schweiz,' vol. i, pp. 41 — 43, distinguishes five species ; but, from the 
figures, the propriety of giving them specific rank seems doubtful, especially in a Fern 
1 In letter. ^ letter. 
