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the Lower Cretaceous, and, as Professor Seward(l) has very justly remarked, “ it is 
highly probable that the suddenness with which the Dicotyledons took their place in the 
vegetation of the world is exaggerated by the scantiness of our fossil records.” 
It is thus hardly possible to attach too much importance to the discoveries which 
have just added new material to that which was already known from the Cretaceous beds 
of New Zealand, and I am grateful to Dr. B. A. Newell Arber for having confided to 
me the task of describing these remains belonging to the Dicotyledons, derived from the 
beds of Waikato Heads, in Auckland, New Zealand. 
These remains are, unfortunately, neither very numerous nor very well preserved. 
One finds imprinted on a large slab, mingled with numerous remains of fronds of 
Cladophlebis australis (Morr.), three leaves of Dicotyledons (Plate XIV, at a, b, and c) the 
value of which is very unequal. One of them represents the apical part of a leaf (a), 
another a base (b), and a third (c) is so fragmentary that it can scarcely be utilized, 
some secondary nerves alone being visible. The nervation of the first two examples is 
well preserved, and can be studied in all its details. The characters which one can 
deduce from it, combined with an examination of the large nerves and the form(?), 
allow one to arrive at a fairly clear idea as to these two impressions (a and b), which 
probably belong to the same type. 
ARTOCARP1DIUM Unger, 1850. 
(Denkschr. k. Acad. Wissen. Wien (Math.-Nat. Cl.), vol. ii, p. 166.) 
Artocarpidium Arberi sp. nov. Plate XIV, a, b. 
Diagnosis. —A. foliis ovatis ? trinerviis ? ; petiolo brevi; margine integra ; nervis 
secundariis oppositis ; tertiario ultimoque reticulo in modum Artocarpearum disposito. 
Description of the Specimen .—Some idea of the form of the leaf can be arrived at by 
reconstructing it from the basal and apical portions occurring on the same slab. As a 
matter of fact, the angle of the secondary nerves is about 30°, the contour presents an 
analogous curve, and as the network of the tertiary veins in both cases is identical it 
appears to me to be quite logical to assign these two fragments to the same species. 
Nevertheless, in the description which I am about to give of it I have especially in view 
the upper part, which, from the point of view of the nervation, is better preserved. 
The leaf must have been coriaceous, judging by the impression which it has left on 
the sediments, and its general form was oval (?). The base is cordate, the margin entire. 
All the veins are prominent. The limb is traversed by a straight and strong median 
nerve, which forms a continuation of a short petiole, but it is somewhat difficult to see 
from the impression whether it has been broken or whether we possess it entire. The 
secondary nerves, which are camptodromous, opposite, or subopposite, emerge from the 
midrib at an angle of about 30°, which remains the same throughout the whole extent 
of the limb, except towards the base, where it is a little more open. The first two 
basal nerves are opposite, and give off on their outer sides rather weak secondary nerves, 
so far as one can judge from the specimen. 
The tertiary network is very important. It is composed of nerves, sometimes 
straight, sometimes anastomosing, forming a polygonal network between the secondary 
nerves. These nerves meet the midrib at right angles, and the neighbouring secondary 
nerve at a slightly more open angle, which gives the whole network a general aspect of 
a succession of flattened arches (argue surbaisse ). There are no secondary incomplete 
nerves terminating within the network. The ultimate nervation is constituted by the 
reunion of branchlets for mi ng among themselves an irregularly polygonal mesh. 
(1) Seward (1904 2 ), p. 155. 
