The Fossil Plants. 
165 
include more than a dozen different genera, distin- 
guished widely from each other by their fructification, 
their habits, and the climates they affect. 
Glossopteris hrowniana may be said to be the pride 
and glory of our Australian coal fossils. It may be found 
of almost any size. It is beautifully tongue-shaped ; 
lienee the name. It appears from Dana’s specimens 
that the leaves grew in clusters, or bunches, and from 
an Indian species that the fructification was scattered 
in little round dots, in rows on the leaf. This is 
nearly the fructification of Microsorum irioides , or 
Polypodium, which grows on the Queensland coasts. 
Glossopteris is best known from G . hrowniana , a 
very common fossil in all the Newcastle coal-beds. 
Nine or more species have been described by various 
authors, and though they depend for their distinction 
on minor peculiarities of veining and shape, one must 
not easily reject them, as they may really represent 
different genera. 
Another interesting form is Cycadopteris . Cycads 
are plants or small trees very much like palms ; they 
are rather common in the Mesozoic beds of Europe, but, 
as is well-known, are quite extinct in that portion of 
the world, no surviving Cycad being known in Europe. 
The Cycads are tropical or sub- tropical plants rather 
common on the East coast of Australia. English 
Geologists, accustomed to the marvellous development 
of these plants in Oolitic times, look with great interest 
on our Cycads, as examples of living fossils. 
