436 
The Coal of Australia. 
Ord. Pecopteiudes. 
Glossopteris Browniana (Br.). 
I think I recognise both the Indian and Australian forms of 
this species (vars. a. and h. of Brongniart) in nearly equal abun¬ 
dance among the specimens examined, and some of the fronds arc 
of a size far exceeding any hitherto published, some of them being 
six inches wide, which in the proportion of the small, perfect 
examples would indicate a frond of more than two feet in length. 
I believe I have ascertained the rhizoma of this species, which is 
furnished with ovate, clasping (or at least very convex) subcarinate 
scales, having a divaricating reticulated neuration, resembling that 
of the perfect frond, but much less strongly marked ; these scales 
are of a large size, some of them being nearly an inch in length, 
and terminating at the apex in a long flat linear appendage, about 
one line in width, which occasionally gives oft' small, lateral, flat, 
membranous branches nearly at right angles; the whole perfectly 
resembling (except in size) the rhizomal scales of Acrostichium, 
Laromanes and Hymenodium, as figured by M. A. Fee in his 
beautiful “ Memoire sur la Fam. des Fougkres,” and when 
combined with the great similarity in form, habit, and neuration, 
would warrant us in presuming a strong affinity to exist between 
these genera. 
Abundant in the soft reddish shales of Jerry’s Plains, and also 
in the black shales and white clay beds of Mulubimba, N. S. W. 
Glossopteris linearis (M’Coy). 
Sp. Char. Leaves very long, narrow, with nearly parallel sides; 
midrib very large; secondary veins fine, forming an angle of 
about 50° with the midrib, anastomosing occasionally from the 
midrib to the margin. 
It is only with the Glossopteris angustifolia (Br.) from the 
Indian coal-fields of Rana-Gunge, near Rajemahl, that this long, 
parallel-sided frond could be confounded, and it is distinguished 
easily from that species by the fineness of the neuration, which is 
as remarkably delicate as that of the other is coarse; the neura¬ 
tion of the G. angustifolia is also distinguished by its great 
obliquity, forming an angle of about 30° with the midrib, while 
