n 
[VOL. IX. 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
The best known species of Glossopteris, Brgt., is Glossopteris Browniana, Brgt., of 
which Brongniart distinguished two varieties: (a), Indioa ,and (b), Australasiaca, which, how¬ 
ever, have been described by Schimper as two different speces, and I think correctly. I may 
add that in India the only prevailing form is that with longer and pointed leaves and much 
narrower reticulation, Glossopteris in dice, Schimp., while the generally smaller form with a 
more obtuse apex and wider reticulation, Gloss. Browniana, Brgt., is much rarer in our strata, 
although it prevails in Australia, where it is the only species found in the lower portion with 
the marine fauna. 
I am now preparing a monograph of the genus Glossopteris, Brgt., and some allied 
genera, in which I will enter more fully into details, and it will be seen that the pointed 
feaves ’prevail in the Damuda, and also that of the figures of our Indian forms those in 
Buubury’s paper (1. c.) are the best, whilst those in Brongniart and Goppert are not very 
correct. 
Brongniart described one form as Glossopt. angustifolia from Raniganj ; I have not 
found any"specimen from India, but I have seen one from Australia, from the upper portion 
of the coal-strata. 
Besides these I have been able to distinguish a great many species, or at least varieties, 
also young fronds, etc. 
Near Nagpdr several specimens have been found with fructification, with 1—4 rows of 
sporangia between the stalk and the margin, which, together with the reticulate nervation, tend 
to indicate a relationship between Glossopteris and some living species of Polypodium. On 
one specimen of the Australian Glossopteris, Brgt., Mr. Carruthers seems to have observed 
a different fructification, consisting of linear sori along the veins, hut nearer to the margin 
of the leaf. (See Carruthers in Daintree’s paper on the Geology of Queensland. Quart. 
Jour., Geol. Soc., 1872). This would prove further the difference between our Glossopteris 
and the Australian species. 
The best known forms are therefore— 
1. Glossopteris indica, Schimp.—large pointed leaves, narrow reticulation. Sori 
in rows on the surface of the frond.—Prevailing in India. 
2. Glossopteris Browniana, Brgt., Schimp.—smaller obtuse leaves, wider reti¬ 
culation. Australian form ; the only species found in the lower strata. 
3. Glossopteris angustifolia, Brgt.—different in the nervation, known from the 
Damudas and the upper portion of the coal-strata in Australia. 
Other species will be shewn to exist after the special examination of this genus. 
There are, besides these, several species described by Bun bury and Me Clelland, but 
Mc’Clelland’s figures (1. c.) cannot be recognized, as they are not accurately drawn. I need 
only mention Glossopteris acaulis, Mc’Clell., Tab. XIV, 1. 3, 3 a, which is not sufficiently 
well figured to he identified, and others are equally imperfect. 
The figures of Australian species of Glossopteris, Brgt., in Dana’s Geology are also of no 
vise for comparison, as the reticulation is incorrectly and irregularly represented. 
Glossopteris is the most common and characteristic fossil of the Damudas. It is 
found in all three sub-divisions and is the unfailing evidence of the occurrence of this 
formation. 
