1(39 
prominent, giving of! numerous secondary veins, usually at right angles ; 
these veins are frequently forked close to the midrib, or the branching may occur 
at varying distances between the midrib and the edge of the leaf. The veins 
are delicate and numerous, approximately fifteen veins per 5mm. of lamina. 
Towards the apex of the fronds the secondary veins become oblique, branching 
at a wide angle from the midrib. 
This species is represented by numerous specimens, many of which show 
the venation characters very clearly. The leaves always occur singly, and afford 
no indication of having been attached to a pinnate frond ; they vary consider¬ 
ably in breadth, and it is impossible to determine where to draw the limit in 
attempting a diagnosis of the species. It is not improbable that the leaves, 
which range in breadth from about 1cm. to more than 3cm., may be specifically 
identical with the narrower type as defined above, but for convenience the 
wider form may be designated Tceniopteris Daintreei, var. major. The broader 
fronds bear a strong likeness to Brongniart’s Tceniopteris vittata ; but, as I have 
elsewhere urged, an accurate specific separation of the numerous sterile Tceniop¬ 
teris fronds is a hopeless task.* * * § 
The narrower form of frond (Figs. 21, 22), as figured also by McCoy and 
Feistmantel, appears to be a type distinct from European species. The dis¬ 
covery of the specimens named by McCoy Tceniopteris Daintreei f led to a 
lengthy and unnecessarily personal controversy as to the nature of the plant 
and its value as evidence of geological age. McCoy regarded Tceniopteris 
Daintreei as evidence in favour of a Jurassic horizon for the Cape Paterson 
beds, Victoria, where the species was found, while Clarke refused to admit that 
the discovery of Tceniopteris was an adverse fact for those who held to a lower 
horizon. 
The numerous narrow fronds figured by Oldham and MorrisJ and after¬ 
wards by Feistmantel § from the Rajmahal series of Bengal and other parts 
of India as Stangerites spathulata and Angiopteridium spathulatum are undoubt¬ 
edly identical with McCoy’s species. The species, Tceniopteris spatulata , 
was originally defined by McClelland as follows :—Frond linear, 2 or 3 inches 
long, narrow at the base, becoming broader towards the apex or subspatulate.|j 
Schenk^f mentions the Indian fern, Tceniopteris spathulata, as being near to 
his T. Muensteri, a type which is usually, and no doubt correctly, placed in 
the Marattiacese on evidence furnished by soral characters. The European 
plant is, I believe, a distinct species, and as yet we have no data which enables 
us to refer either the Australian or Indian fronds to a particular family of 
ferns. The Queensland fern figured by Carruthers** as Tceniopteris Daintreei 
is much broader than McCoy’s type, and, as several writers have suggested, 
it is probably a distinct species, identical, as Feistmantel suggested, with a 
fern from the Stromberg beds which that author named Tceniopteris Car- 
ruthersi: j*f 
* Seward (00), p. 158. 
f McCoy (60). 
t Oldham and Morris (63), PI. VI. 
§ Feistmantel (77 2 ), PI. I; (79), Pis. I., II., XV. 
|| McClelland (50), p. 53. 
*[f Schenk (67), p. 101. 
** Carruthers (72), PL XXVII., Fig. 6. 
ft Feistmantel (89), PI. II. 
