38 
weight on the possible occurrence of a few anastomoses which are, quite as likely 
as not, artificial and, not real, and thus to include them in a genus ( Glossopteris ) which 
reached its maximum at an earlier geological period. On my view it is by no means 
safe to assume that the two plants are “ very closely related,” and it is better to 
maintain a non-committal attitude, or even to suggest a distinct origin by placing 
the New Zealand fossils in a distinct genus. 
Linguifolium Lillieanum Arber. Plate III, figs. 1, 7. 
1913. Linguifolium Lillieanum Arber, Proc. Roy. Soc. London, ser. B, vol. lxxxvi, p. 346, 
pi. 7, figs. 1, 4. 
Diagnosis. —Leaves spathulate, up to 9 cm. or more in length, and 1-7-3 cm. across 
at their greatest width. Margins entire, apex rounded, leaf gradually tapering to 
an elongate base; midrib well marked, persisting to the apex. Lateral veins arising 
at an acute angle to the midrib, arching upwards and then bending to the margin, 
once or twice forked, about 1 mm. apart. 
Description of the Specimens.- —The specimens are all fragmentary, and no complete 
leaf occurs. A median portion of a leaf is seen enlarged on Plate III, fig. 1. This 
shows the midrib and the lateral nervation. Here and there, in this specimen, it 
appears at first sight as if the lateral nerves anastomose. I am, however, convinced 
that, in this as in other cases, the appearances are deceptive. Some of them 
arise from the imperfect removal of the film of carbon covering the frond. The 
little strips of carbon which remain in some cases simulate nerves. In others the 
leaf did not lie quite flat on the matrix before preservation took place, and this 
has led to a squeezing of the lamina, the lateral nerves thus becoming approximated. 
At the top right-hand corner of this specimen the irregularity and the apparent union 
of the nerves appears to be due to both causes. At any rate, in the great majority 
of cases there is no anastomosis, and wherever such apparent unions are seen they 
may be explained in one of the two ways above indicated. The nervation is best 
seen in fig. 7 of Plate III, which shows two portions of rather small leaves, in which 
the lateral nerves are fairly clear, though the film of carbon still largely adheres 
' to the lamina. The dichotomy of the nerves is only occasional. This photograph 
is somewhat enlarged. 
Remarks.- —I am inclined to regard L. Lillieanum as specifically distinct from any 
of the previously described members of the same genus indicated on p. 37. It, 
however, stands nearest to the South Australian L. Feistmanteli (Ether.). I have 
only seen one example from the Malvern Hills, and this belongs to the Canterbury 
Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand. The nervation is here clearly seen, and, so far 
as one can judge, this specimen is identical with those occurring at Mount Potts. 
Type in the British Museum (Natural History). 
Occurrence. —Mount Potts (Rhsetic). Malvern Hills (l Lower Jurassic); in the 
Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand. 
Genus MICROPHYLLOPTERIS gen. nov. 
Among the fern-like fronds of Mesophytic age occurring in New Zealand there 
are specimens which by most authors woidd be unhesitatingly referred to the genus 
Gleichenites Goepp. Similar fronds are found not infrequently in Mesozoic rocks 
elsewhere, and have been generally regarded as the leaves of ferns closely allied to, 
if not identical with, the modern fern Gleichenia. This may be the case, but, so 
