29 
Ohs. — That this fossil leaf belongs to Quercus can scarcely he doubted. 
Judging from the peculiarities of the impression, the texture of the leaf must 
be regarded as coriaceous. The leaf is petiolate ; hut the length of the petiole 
cannot be stated exactly, because it appears broken in the impression, and 
probably only a small portion has been preserved. The form is lanceolate, 
the base acuminate, and the apex, although only imperfectly preserved, may, 
according to its lower portion, be recognised as narrowed. The margin is 
roughly dentate ; some of the teeth show short spines ; probably all the teeth 
were provided with such, although they mostly appear indistinct in the 
impression. The venation is perfectly craspedodromic. Prom the strongly 
prominent, straight, and tapering midrib, proceed, at rather acute angles, 
numerous sharply- defined, simple, straight, or only slightly bent secondary 
veins, terminating in the teeth. The tertiary veins are very fine, mostly 
branched, connected, and proceeding on both sides of the secondaries at 
almost right angles. The finer reticulation between the tertiary Aherns is only 
very imperfectly preserved in the impression. 
The leaf described belongs to a species of oak coming under the section 
Lepiddbalanus , Endl ; but although among the species of that section there 
are a great number which show leathery, dentate, craspedodromic, prominently 
veined leaves, more or less similar to the fossil, I conclude from their com- 
parison, that among existing oaks the Asiatic Quercus castaneafolia , C. A. 
Meyer (PI. VII, fig. 5), is the species which must be considered as most 
nearly allied to the Q. drymejoides. It is also nearly related to the Q. 
Libcmi, Oliv. (PI. VII, fig. 7). Of fossil species of oak hitherto described, 
Q. primordictlis , Lesq., from the Cretaceous Flora of Nebraska, agrees best 
with our species. The species named differs only in its somewhat more 
obtuse-angled and less ascending secondary veins. In all other characters 
the correspondence is most complete. Among tertiary oaks known up to the 
present, Quercus Dnjmeja , Ung., Q. furcinervis, Rossm. sp., Q. green- 
landica, Heer,* and Q. pseudocastanea , Goepp., resemble, as regards form 
* According to Heer’s definition of this species, there would seem to he scarcely any variation at all in the 
form of its leaves. The leaves of all species of oak, however, show great variability in size, marginal character, 
and venation. (Compare the leaves of Quercus stellata on PI. VII, figs. 1, 3.) Of course the variations in the leaf 
of a fossil plant can only be established when its leaves are of frequent occurrence and promising material for 
investigation is obtainable. At Atanekerdluk, one of the richest deposits of plant remains, the leaf remains of 
Quercus t/rmnlandica occur in enormous quantities, and surely the rich collections which through the industry and 
perseverance of the explorer of the extreme North have already been made must contain numerous forms and 
varieties of this oak. Heer has, however, referred them to other species. I shall here only mention a narrow- 
leaved form which approaches the Australian Q. drymejoides, and which has been determined by Heer as Q. 
Drymeja, in his “ Flora Fossilis Arctica ” (Part I, PI. XI, figs. 1 and 2). Its teeth have the same direction as in 
the Q. grcmlaudica, the dental sinuses are obtuse-angled, the tertiary veins directed abruptly upwards, and the 
texture scarcely coriaceous. In Q. Drymeja, Ung., however, the teeth have a more forward direction. The 
included sinuses being in consequence very acute-angled, the tertiary veins are not ascending, and the texture is 
coriaceous. 
