372 
Clarence Series of Grafton by Mr. E. F. Pittman,* * * § and we now possess a very excellent 
series of Taniopteris from the Mesozoic Beds of the Talbragar Eiver District.f More 
recently the late Mr. C. 8. Wilkinson collected a series of specimens at Mylne’s Gap, 
about twenty-live miles north-west of Grafton. The identity of the Talbragar Eiver 
specimens with the typical T. Daintreei in the National Museum, Melbourne, has been 
obligingly confirmed by Prof. McCoy, to whom specimens were sent. 
The determination of the united Queensland and Clarence Eiver examples has 
given me a great deal of trouble, from their fragmentary condition, and variability of 
characters. Notwithstanding the opinion of Prof. McCoy, to whom specimens were 
also sent, that these “ are specifically distinct from T. Daintreei," I have provisionally 
united these leaves with that species for the following reasons — (a) similarity in the 
growth and form of the frond ; (i) identity in the nature of the venation in all but one 
point ; and (e) absence of other negative characters. 
The frond of T. Daintreei attained some size, one specimen from the Talbragar 
Eiver measuring seven inches in length (and then not perfect) by eight-sixteenths of an 
inch wide. Prof. McCoy states that he had never seen a specimen of this fern 
more than about four lines wide, but, as individual fronds reached as much as four 
inches long, it must " have been of a singularly narrow, long, linear shape.” It most 
resembles the English Oolitic T. viltala, PhilL, but is smaller, very much narrower, 
and thicker than the latter. All seen by me are separate and detached leaves, no 
trace of a pinnate arrangement having presented itself, but the general resemblance 
to those species possessing this character, and for which Schimper proposed the 
genus Angiopteridium, is so strong, that one is insensibly led to refer the present 
species to it. 
The petiole was long and strong, the frond insensibly expanding in width 
upwards from it, describing either a straight, curved, or flexuose course. In the 
majority of instances the margin is entire, and the frond in consequence parallel-sided, 
but examples are before me in which the edges are irregularly emarginate, producing 
at times almost fantastic outlines. In specimens from the Talbragar Eiver the apices 
are either rounded or acute, generally the former ; but in Queensland examples the 
rounded apices are sometimes emarginate centrally. These blunt rounded apices are 
precisely similar to Oldham and Morris’s, fig. 5,J and to that of Nathorst’s T. (^Olean- 
dridium) obtusa.% 
The direction of the veins in the Talbragar examples, on passing from the midrib 
is, as described by McCoy, at right angles, but here and there a specimen is met with in 
which the veins break from the midrib at a decided angle. Tho bifurcation of the veins 
into venules is very variable, and does not seem to follow any general rule. It may take 
place close to the midrib, halfway between the latter and the margin of the frond, or 
near the last-named. 
Whether we take the Clarence Eiver or Queensland specimens, the form and 
proportions of the fronds are the same, and the venation and its bifurcation are of a similar 
character, but here there is great variation in tho angle of divergence of the veins from 
the midrib. These discrepancies, however, are alt to be seen on one and the same specimen. 
Thus : some veins are quite at right angles, as in a typical T. Daintreei from Victoria, 
and tho Talbragar Eiver examples ; others, a few lines away, are inclined upwards ; 
* Ann. Report Dept. Mines N. S. Wales for 1879 [1880], p. 227. 
+ Ann. Report Dept. Mines N. S. Wales, for 1889 [1890], p. 287. 
J Pal. Indica (Gondwana Flora), 1803, i., Pt. 1, fasc. 5, t. 6. 
§ Flor. Skones Kolforande Bilningar, i., 1878, Haft 1, t. 8, f. 10 and 13 [Svenyes Gcol. VndersSkning 
Sen C., No. 27). 
