EOCENE EERNS. 
55 
Lower Bagshot, Alum Bay. 
This species appears to have been closely allied to the existing Marattia Kaiilfiissii, 
J. Smith ; and its fronds were probably, as in the recent species, tri-quadripinnatifid, and 
of large size. Although the pinnules figured are fragmentary and 
mostly detached, this condition appears to have resulted mainly from 
the accidents of collection. The pinnules are lanceolate and profoundly 
pinnatifid. The segments are obliquely lanceolate, largest on the upper 
side next the rachis, and with acuminated apex ; toothed towards the 
base of the pinnules, becoming simple and finally confluent at their apex. 
The rachis is slender and very distinctly winged. The texture seems 
to have been herbaceous to membranaceous. The primary veins of the 
segments are sharply defined and distinct to the apex, but the secon- 
dary veins are very indistinct, and only traceable on one specimen 
(figs. 4 and 4 a), in which they seem to be few, simple, slightly curved, 
forming an obtuse angle with the mid-rib, and terminating in the 
marginal teeth; and on another (fig. 6, 6 a), from apparently a basal 
pinnule, in which they are seen to be more complex. In the existing 
species the synangia are situated on the secondary veins of the seg- Kauifussu. 
ments, not easily removed, and leave behind them the basal part of the short stalk 
by which they are attached. No trace of even this attachment, however, is discernible 
in the fossils, except in one instance where there is an appearance of the synangia themselves 
being preserved (fig. 6). The fragment, barely two centimetres in length (PI. XII, 
fig. 7), presents greater decurrence in the segments, and might on this account have 
been considered separate, but that this character is seen to an even greater extent in the 
ends of the pinnules of M. Kaulfussii. 
Marattia Kaulfussii is the only species belonging to the group Eupodiim, separated 
on account of its short-stalked synangia without an involucre. Its fronds measure 
three to four feet in length. It inhabits the West Indies and Columbia to Ecuador and 
Rio Janeiro. M. Hookeri is distinguishable by its more elegant and slender pinnules, 
the more sharply lanceolate and less deeply toothed segments, and less amply winged 
rachis, resembling in these respects, very closely, the young fronds of the existing species 
with which it is compared. 
No fossil Fern distinctly belonging to Marattia had previously been described. 
M. Hookeri seems not to have been rare at Alum Bay, but it had been overlooked in 
collections owing to its superficial resemblance to Conifers with which it had been found 
associated. There is now but little hope that better specimens will be obtained from the 
locality. 
ElLICES INCERT^ SEDIS. 
I. The specimen figured in PI. II, fig. 6, presents no sufficient characters for 
9 
