Note on a Collection of Fossil Plants from the Neighbourhood of Lake Nyasa

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Abstract
O ur present knowledge of the palæobotany of Portuguese East Africa rests on a memoir by Prof. Potonié, of Berlin, published in 1899. The following species were then recorded from Ituli:— Glossopteris browniana , Brongn., G. indica , Schimper, and G. angustifolia , Brongn., and from German East Africa, Glossopteris sp., Vertebraria, Schizoneura cf. meriani , and Voltziopsis . Mr. Andrew's collection was derived from four localities, three from the district of the Lower Shire and one from the neighbourhood of Mount Waller. The greater number of the specimens are in fragmentary examples of shale obtained from the Middle Shale Group near Zimbawe Hill, on the Ngoma River, which rises on the Anglo-Portuguese border and reaches the Zambezi just above Sinjal (fig. 8, p. 216), Lower Shire area. Several fragments of fronds of Glossopteris occur. Some of these appear to be rather small leaves of Glossopteris indica , Schimper, with narrow elongated meshes. The fronds vary greatly in size, small leaves predominating. Some of them closely resemble the figure of G. indica , Schimper, from India, given by Feistmantel on pl. xxxviii A , fig. 4, of his ‘Lower Gondwana Flora’. Other fronds of still smaller dimensions may be compared with pl. xxxiv A , fig. 2, of Feistmantel's memoir. Such specimens are difficult to identify specifically, and possibly are only young immature fronds belonging to one of the commoner species, such as G. indica , Schimper, or G. browniana , Brongn. On the other hand, some examples seem to be identical with Glossopteris retifera . Feist.; and possibly G. angustifolia , Brongn. is represented

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