162 
CLASS FILICALES. 
Family Polypodiace;e. 
GENUS ADIANTITES, GOEPPERT. 
The genus Adiantites is usually applied to ferns from devonian and car¬ 
boniferous rocks of which the pinnules are characterized by a narrow wedge- 
shaped base and a triangular or oval form. In speaking of this genus Zeiller* 
states that no fertile specimens have been found. We may apply this generic 
term to the specimen represented in Fig. 5, using the name in a wide sense 
as denoting a resemblance, as regards the form of the segments, to recent 
species of both Adiantum and Lindsay a. Some authors use Schimper’s genus 
Adiantides'f instead of Adiantites. 
Adiantites Lindsayoides, sp. nov. 
Figs. 5, 5a. 
The specimen (73) (allotment 62, parish of Jumbunna) on which this species 
is founded is shown in Fig. 5 ; it consists of a slender axis, 5 cm. long, bearing 
obcuneate pinnules with very clearly preserved dichotomous veins and mar¬ 
ginal sori. No individual sporangia can be recognised, but the distal edge of 
the pinnules appears to be folded over as an indusium covering a marginal 
row of sporangia represented by carbonaceous patches. (Fig. 5a). 
The recent genera with which the fossil may be compared are Adiantum 
and Lindsaya ; ■ on the whole certain species of the latter genus exhibit the 
closest resemblance. In Lindsaya the sori are marginal, circular, or linear, 
and the edge of the fertile segments is more or less modified as an indusium. 
The fossil pinnules do not show any distinct or well-defined sori, but, so 
far as it is possible to judge, the sporangia appear to be arranged as a fairly 
continuous marginal series. (Fig. 5a). Lindsaya stricta , Dry., of tropical 
America, and L. flabellulata, Dry., occurring in Northern India, the Malay 
region, Northern Australia, and elsewhere, differ but slightly from Adiantites 
Lindsayoides. Such species of Adiantum as A. hispidulum, Sw., and A . 
jiabellatum , L., also agree fairly closely with the fossil form, but in Adiantum 
the sori are usually separate and not continuous as in Lindsaya. 
Localities. —Allotment 62, parish of Jumbunna ; allotment 39c, Jumbunna 
East. 
Other Specimens. —140 (allotment 39c, Jumbunna East) is a much less 
perfect example of the same type. 
Family Cyatheace^:. 
GENUS CONIOPTERIS, BRONGNIART. 
This generic name has been employed for certain mesozoic ferns which 
agree with recent Dicksoniese in the form of the sori, and in the habit of the 
fronds occupy a more or less intermediate position between Pecdpteris and 
Sphenopteris.% The reason for employing this term in preference to such 
generic titles as Dicksonia and Tliyrsopteris, which have frequently been 
used for jurassic species on insufficient grounds, is that we avoid the implica¬ 
tion of an identity with recent types, which cannot in the majority of cases 
be proved. 
* Zeiller (00), p. 102. 
| e.g. y Kidston (89), p. 421. 
X Seward (00), p. 98. 
