Szekessy Vilmos (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 56. (Budapest 1964)

Rásky, K.: Studies of Tertiary plant remains from Hungary

endeavoured to compare it with the recent Woodwardia radicans (L.) SM. of the Canaries and Madeira. The presence of the sori on the fossil remains substantiated his statement; according to him, the fossils do not differ from the species Woodwardia radicans. SAPORTA and MARION (1876) published the fern fragment found in the Pliocene of Meximieux, France, under the name Woodwardia radicans var. pliocenica, indicating its similarity to the recent species. SQUINABOL described, without submitting any figures (1889, II, p. 21), remains with sori from the Lower Pliocene sediments of S. Fruttuoso under the same name. From Europe, MASSALONGO (1859, p. 99, Tav. 7, Fig 21) published a badly preserved specimen as Woodwardia? sp. indet., which, on the basis of the description, might also belong to the species. VELENOVSKY (1881, p. 11, Taf. 1, Fig. 1-8) described remains from the environments of Laun, Czechoslovakia, under the name Woodwardia roessneriana HEER, comparing it with the recent Woodwardia radicans. VELENOVSKY himself remarked that there are certain differences between UNGER'S, HEER'S, and his own specimens. (VELENOVSKY, Taf. 1, Fig. 3 — 4, with its less divided pinnules and the rounded apices of the pinnae, would rather resemble the recent SE Asiatic Quercifilix zeglandica COP., with regard also to its venation). On VELENOVSKY'S specimens (Taf. 1, Fig. 1 —2), the lateral veins do not anastomose, hence they are rather comparable to the recent Woodwardia virginica of the Atlantic North America, or Woodwardia japonica Sw. in South China and Japan. (Similar fronds can be found, however, also on the recent Brainea insignis HOOK. On the pinnules of this fern, the interspaces along the midrib are not elongate, emitting directly the lateral nerves into the fine and dense dentation. Therefore these leaflets do not show the second row of network between the midrib and the margins. The pinnules of Brainea insignis HOOK, arise separately from the rachis, their bases are free in contrast with the divided fronds on Woodwardia radicans. The fossil fragments of the fern Brainea insignis HOOK, can be easily mistaken for Woodwardia species. The same holds for some Doodia species, too). KRÄUSEL (1920) also mentions the Woodwardia fern remains from the Silesian Tertiary flora. KOWNAS (1955, p. 444, Pt. 1, Fig. 1, and Textfigs. 2-3) described the remains of Woodwardia roessneriana (UNG.) HEER, and Woodwardites muensterianus (STERNB. & PRESL) F. BR., from the Tertiary flora from Dobrzyn-on-the-Vistula. He connected the former species with the recent Woodwardia radicans CAV., the latter with the recent Woodwardia virginica SM., and Woodwardia japonica Sw. TAKHTAJAN described fossil remains (1963, p. 193, Taf. 1, Figs. 2 -5) from the Neogene flora of the Goderdzi Pass (SW Georgia, Transcaucasus) under the name Woodwardia radicans (L.) SMITH., identifying it as the recent species. In America, LESQUERETJX (1878, p. 54, Pt. 3, Figs. 1, la) described a fine fossil specimen under the name Woodwardia latiloba from the Tertiary of Golden (Colorado); then KNOWLTON (1930, p. 21, Pt. 2, Figs. 1—2) separated a dentate fossil by the name Woodwardia latiloba LESQ. var. serrate KNOWLTON, from the Middle Park formation. BERRY (1929, p. 236, Pt. 64, Figs. 22 - 23) presented fossil remains under the name Woodwardia praeradicans from the Miocene layer of the Latah formation in Spokane, Washington. These remains, as regards both descriptions and figures, can be well identified with the Ipolytarnóc specimens. According to BERRY: „ . . . the species is remarkably like the living Woodwardia radicans (L.) SM., which occurs in shaded environments along streams in the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges from California to Mexico and Guatemala ..." The majority of the Woodwardia fern remains, occuring in the European as well as the Asiatic or American Tertiary, is connected with, or wholly identified as, the recent Woodwardia radicans (L.)SM. BERRY termed the remains, identical with the recent Woodwardia radicans (L.) SM. but found in geological sediments, as Woodwardia praeradicans, for the sake of distinction. Comparison with recent species: For our part, we also connect the Ipolytarnóc finds primarily with the species Woodwardia radicans (L.) SM. This latter taxon favours today humid, shaded sites, living in the warmer countries of the Northern Hemisphere. Far from the Canaries and Madeira, the plant advances to 1800 m. a. s. 1. in the Himalaya, being at home also in the mountains of China, Japan, and the Philippines, and in the middle forest regions of Java. In the Pacific North America, the plant occurs south of N. Lat. 47 to Mexico as well as Guatemala. However, we have also compared the Ipolytarnóc finds with the recent Woodwardia cochinchinensis CHING, and Woodwardia unigemmata NAKAI. Both species live in SE Asia. DIELS