192 
Ols. The relation of this plant is with the group of ferns represented by such 
genera, as Ci/clopferis, Arcltceopterig {—FalcBopteris) , Ehacopteris, Adiantiieg (so-called), 
and others. The resemblance is specially strong to Cyclopteris and Adiantites, but I 
believe Professor Goppert, the author of the latter, abandoned his genus in favour of 
Cyclopteris. . ■ i i 
In originally proposing Aneimites* Prineijial Uaw.?on evidently had in mind tlie 
British Coal Measures fern, Splienopieru adinntoides, Bindley and Hutton ; so much so 
that to this he at first referred the plant afterwards called by him Aneimites {Cyclop- 
tens') acadica-f 
This being the case, we may justly include Spliehopteris adianfoides in Aneimites- 
Purthcrinore, it is to be regretted that Prineijial Dawson did not refer to this obvious 
fact in his second and more detailed account of the Canadian fern. ^ , 
The strong resemblance borne by the Queensland specimen to the jiritis^ 
Aneimites adianfoides, L. and H., sp., and in a less degree to A. ncadicn, Dn., renders it 
exceedingly probable that it should be placed in the genus in question. I shall, there- 
fore, speak of it in future as Aneimites austrina. 
The pinn* of A. austrina are about three inches long, the entire frond, as 
preserved, occupying a space of more than one foot. The frond is generally flabellate 
and bipinnate, there being portions of eight piun® on one side, alternating with seven 
on the other, of a rather broad rachis. The pinn® are elongate and generally narrow, 
hardly expanding from a uniform width, and decreasing but very slowly in width towards 
their apices. The pinnules are ovate or obovate-pyriform, and retain their form 
throughout the length of each pinna until near their apices, when the pinnules 
become longer and more wedge-shaped, the pinna terminating in a uni-, bi-, or 
tri-lobed pinnule. The pinnules have likewise a somewhat flabellate aspect, seldom 
sub-imbricate, or overlapping one another, but separated by an interspace, which m 
certainly at times rather inconspicuous. The proximal margins of the pinnules are 
parallel’ to the rachis, and during fossilisation some of them have slightly infringed on 
the latter. , 
The two lowest pinn® exhibit a marked difference from those above them, in© 
second pair are the best preserved and are deojjly lobate and pinnatifid, conforming to 
the habit we are- accustomed to associate with the pinnules in some Sphonopterids. The 
divisions of the pinn® in question have quite lost their pyriform or obovate outline, bu 
are irregularly trilobate, and to some extent incised, the apical lobe being the larges > 
and more or loss lanceolate. The nerves are but faintly visible on the specimen 
occupying the greater portion of the sloib, but are shown on a smaller example ly*^" 
near. The lower piun® seem to be only a modification of the lobate apical piunules o 
the higher pinn®, as seen on the third to the right from the bottom of the specimen) 
and the fifth and sixth on the left hand. But they are not the basal, as the lower 
portion of the frond is concealed by matrix. 
The resemblance of A. austrina to A. adianfoides consists in the similar obova 
or pyriform pinnules, with a like modification of the apical pinnules. The two ferDS> 
however, differ greatly in the relative sizes of their respective portions, whilst in 1 1 
British species there is no appearance of the dissimilar lower pinn®. 
Prom A. acadica, Dn., the form of the pinnules will at once distinguish it. 
Loc. and Horizon. Near Mount Budge, Drummond Eange {A. E. Hoh^es , 
Colin. Smith) — Star Beds. 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1860, xvii., p. 5. 
+ The Fossil Plants of the Lower Carboniferous and Millstone Grit F ormations of Canada. 
Surv., Canada, 1873, p. 26. 
