62 
BRITISH EOCENE ELORA. 
as if they were the margins of the leaf ; for example, ' Lignites of Bovey/ pi. vi, fig. 2, 
'Flora of Skopau/ pi. ix, figs. 3 2, 3 ; 'Elora des Zsilythales/ pi. i, figs. 3, 3 ; and in 
each case he has given it a difierent 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. — Jspidium 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 hke Osmunda. When determining the Bovey plants Prof. Heer 
" sought in vain for sori amongst many hundreds of pinnules," and hesitated to name it 
Hemiteliai "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 pinnse 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 France and 
Germany, from the Tongrian and Aquitanian stages. It was not a Miocene Fern in 
Europe, so far as we know at present, but was essentially characteristic of the Middle 
Eocene and Oligocene. Notwithstanding its great abundance, fertile pinnas have not been 
remarked, and only in one instance (0. Grutschreiberi) have the pinnae 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 Osmunda, 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, 
