THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



No. 132. SEPTEMBER 1847. 



XV. — On the Fossil Botany and Zoology of the Rocks associated 

 with the Coal of Australia. By Frederick M'Coy, M.G.S. 

 & N.H.S.D. &c. 



[With nine Plates.] 



The following paper has been drawn up from an examination of 

 specimens collected by the Rev. W. B. Clark and sent to the 

 Rev. Prof. Sedgwick, who kindly allowed the writer to make this 

 use of them. 



The species will be first noticed, and the new forms described, 

 after which some observations will be offered on the relative ages 

 of the Australian coal-fields, from a comparison of their organic 

 remains with each other, and with those of other countries ; pre- 

 mising that the extent of our materials enables this to be at- 

 tempted in a more extended and precise manner than heretofore, 

 and that several of the new forms described are calculated to throw 

 much light on the fossils of our own country. 



In this first part of my paper I wish to express my obligations 

 to the Rev. Prof. Henslow and Mr. Babington for the kindness 

 with which they allowed me the use of their herbaria on all oc- 

 casions when I found it necessary to work out for myself points 

 of structure in recent plants, neglected by botanists and omitted 

 in their works, but which are of the highest importance in the 

 investigation of fossil plants. To the facilities afforded by the 

 former for my examination of the New Holland plants growing 

 in the houses of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, I am mainly 

 indebted for the maturing my views of the affinities of the genus 

 Phyllotheca. 



PLANTS. 



Class Acrogens. (Al. Lycopodales.) 



Ord. MarsileacejE (?). 



Vertebraria (Royle). 



This genus has been proposed by Prof. Royle in his ' Illustra- 

 tions of the Botany of the Himalaya Mountains ' for two species 

 Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Vol.xx. 11 



