47 
Obs. — It cannot be denied that this leaf has great similarity with 
some fossils from the Tertiary Strata of Central Europe, and incorporated 
with the Proteacre. The decidedly prominent margin indicates a coriaceous 
texture, and an elongate-lanceolate form may be deduced from the fragment 
at hand. The teeth are rather long, forwardly directed, and without spines. 
The midrib appears to have been injured in several places, but it is quite 
evident that it must have been rather strong and prominent. The secondary 
veins are simple, rectilinear, or very slightly arcuate, approximate, and issuing 
at nearly right angles ; between each pair of secondary veins ending in the 
points of the teeth, lie two or three scarcely finer parallel veins, which end in 
the dorsal portion of the tooth. Of the tertiary veins nothing has been pre- 
served, but they were probably very fine, short, and dictyodromic. The 
characters described, however, are found also, sometimes exactly, and some- 
times approximately, in the leaves of existing Proteacm. The greatest simi- 
larity is shown in Banksia attenuata, R. Brown (see Ettingshausen, 
Blattskelete der Apetalcn, PI. XLVI, figs. 1, 3), whose leaves in the denta- 
tion of the margin (the teeth being likewise without spines), and the characters 
of the venation (one character of the secondary veins excepted), agree to a 
remarkable extent with the fossil. In Banksia attenuata , and in most of 
the other species of Banksia, there proceed between every two secondary 
veins, ending in the points of the teeth, not equal but unequal secondary 
veins, and, in fact, usually one stronger, and on either side thereof one 
weaker, alternately. The first of these latter proceeds towards the dental 
sinus, where it divides into two branches of unequal length ; the others are 
shorter, and become lost in the reticulation of the leaf. This peculiarity of 
the secondary veins is even more striking in Banksia cemula, R. Brown 
(Ettingshausen, toe. cit., PI. XLIY, figs. 6-8), B. serrata, R. Brown (Ettings- 
hausen, toe. cit., PI. XLY, figs. 1-5), and others, in which the vein proceeding 
towards the dental sinus, sends out two branches, which enter the teeth as 
marginal veins, approximating the margin very closely. In Banksias with 
lobate leaves, and in most species of Bryandra, we find in each lobe several 
equal or unequal secondary veins converging towards the apex of the lobe, 
and anastomosing with one another, or at least with the central vein, 
running into the apex of the lobe. The finer and the outer shorter secondary 
veins of the lobes are mostly branched. The fossil described, therefore, 
possesses properties which are shared by Banksia and Bryandra alike, viz., 
the coriaceous texture, the strong midrib, and the either rectilinear or slightly 
arcuate, approximate secondary veins, of which two or three proceed towards 
