I 
21 5 
T ceniopteris spatulata and its varieties. 
Since seme confusion seems to exist regarding the nomenclature and 
relationship of the Australian, and in particular the Victorian, members 
of the genus Tcenioptens, the following notes are placed on record as an 
attempt to define the variable representatives of a broadly characterized 
species, of which the infertile leaves are the only materials for diagnosis. 
During the course of examining a very large number of Tceniopteris- 
leaves, both in the National Museum collection, and in that of the 
Geological Survey of Victoria, I have been strongly convinced that all 
the forms represented, at least in our Victorian Jurassic strata, are closely 
related to one another, and that in all probability there is only one central 
type, viz., T. spatulata , McClelland; with an extreme variation in 
opposite directions, as exemplified by the broad type of leaf— T. 
Carruthersi , T. Woods, and the narrow type— T. Daintreei, McCoy. 
This conclusion has been arrived at by taking into consideration all the 
available characters of 'the Tceniopteris leaf, such as the leaf-width, size 
and character of the midrib, relation of the secondary veins to the midrib,, 
and the character and spacing of the secondary veinsi. 
T. spatulata , McClelland 1 . 
This species, as the central type, may be defined practically in the 
terms employed by McClelland. It has a moderately broad leaf, slightly 
narrowing towards the base, having a roundly pointed to spatulate apex, 
and somewhat flexuose surface; the sides generally very gently convex. 
The midrib thickens towards the base; the secondary veins are variably 
spaced and emerge at a slightly acute angle from the midrib, almost 
immediately bifurcating, 2 afterwards, in the majority of specimens, 
turning at right angles. The type form, T. spatulata , as such, had not 
previously been recorded from Victoria, but we also have it from the 
following localities, in the collection of the Melbourne National Museum: 
—Burne’s Creek, Traralgon, Calignee, and Wild Dog Creek in Gipps- 
land, Barrabool Hills, near Geelong, and Coleraine, Western- Victoria. 
T. spatulata, McClelland, var. Carruthersi, T. Woods. 3 
A critical inspection of the spacing of the secondary veins in our 
Victorian examples shows every gradation to exist between Carru.thers’ 
figured specimen and that regarded as a new variety of T. Daintreei 
(major) by Mr. Seward. 4 The specimen figured by Mr. J. Stirling in his 
report, 5 No. 7, page 4, as T. Carruthersi, is a well-preserved example, 
and I have compared it with a typical leaf of T. Carruthersi from the 
Ipswich coal-fields, presented to the National Museum by Mr. J. Shirley, 
B.Sc. ; with the result that both are seen to show the same broad char¬ 
acter of leaf, and the secondary veins are spaced exactly alike, whilst 
the forking takes place usually near to the midrib as in the variety 
Daintreei, but also at every point between that and the margin. We are 
indebted to Mr. G. B. Pritchard, F.G.S., for the loan of a series of 
Queensland Tceniopteris leaves, which has greatly aided in the comparison 
of the Victorian examples of the genus. 
The variety major described *by Seward, of which the type is now in 
the National Museum, is variable in the form of the leaf. The chief 
distinctive character, as Seward also remarks, is the relatively greater 
(1) Rep. Geol. Surv. India, 1850 p. 53, pi. xvi., fig. 1. 
< 2) The forking of the lateral veins is shown near the edge of the lamina in McClelland’s figure, which, 
although taken as the type, is not “ typ’cal ” in every respect, when compared with the numerous figure* 
of the same form by Oldham and Morris (Flora of Gondwana System, Pal. Ser. II Vol. I., pt. 1. 1S63, p. 34, 
pi. vi., figs. 1-7), in which the forking takes place as frequently, or even more so, near the midrib. 
(3) “ T. Dantreei” Carruthers, in Daintree, Quart. Joern. Geol. Soc.. Vol XXVIII. 1872, p. 350, pi XXVII. 
fig. 6, T. Carruthersi, T. Woods, Proc. Linn. soc. N >'. S. Wales, Vol. VIII., pt. 1, 1883, p. 37. 
(4) Records Geol. Surv. Viet., Vol. I., pt.3, 1904, p. 171, figs. 23, 24. 
(5) Report.Viet. Coalfields, No, 7,1900. 
