310 Mr. F. M'Coy on the Fossil Botany and Zoology 



the species of which are found only in the palaeozoic coal ; the plant 

 however agrees much better with the species of the Keuper ge- 

 nus Heptacarpus than with those of the carboniferous Gleichenites, 

 and if we look rather to the plants themselves than to the defi- 

 nitions given of the genera, I should certainly place it there : all 

 the other genera (with the exception of Phyllotheca, which is 

 confined to the locality) are well-known in the oolitic coal de- 

 posits of Yorkshire, and one species, the Sphenopteris germana 

 (M'Coy), is scarcely to be distinguished from the common Pecop- 

 teris Murrayana (Br.) of the Scarborough shales. Several of 

 those genera are common both to the carboniferous and oolitic 

 periods, but the most abundant and characteristic plants of the 

 Australian beds belong to a genus (Glossopteris) never found in 

 the old coal-fields, but several species of which are, on the other 

 hand, well-known in coal-beds of the oolitic age in various parts 

 of the world. I am therefore strongly of opinion, from the evi- 

 dence of more than double the number of species of plants known 

 before, that the coal deposits of Australia should be referred to 

 the oolitic period; and this opinion derives much additional weight 

 from the negative fact, that among the large quantity of remains 

 of plants which I have examined from this district, not a trace 

 has been observed of any of the characteristic carboniferous ge- 

 nera — not a trace of Lepidodendron or any allied plant — not a trace 

 of Sigillaria, Favularia, Stigmaria, or even of true Catamites. I 

 might further add, that the list of plants I have given destroys 

 any negative arguments formerly based on the fossil evidence, 

 for considering the Jerusalem coal-basin to be of a different age 

 from the Newcastle one, as I have detected the most characteristic 

 plants of the former abundantly in the latter beds, so that the 

 fossil evidence now would go, with the admitted identity of the 

 walls of the basins and the general analogy of the sections, to 

 prove them all of one age. 



In the underlying rocks I have been able to determine 83 spe- 

 cies of animal remains, of which 14 are Zoophyta, 3 Crinoidea, 

 4 Crustacea, 25 Brachiopoda, 24 Lamellibranchiata, 6 Gastero- 

 poda, 4i Pteropoda and 3 Cephalopoda (including Better ophon). 

 Of these, 4 genera and 32 species are figured and described as 

 new. Those 83 species belong to 39 genera, all of which (with 

 the exception of the genera Tribrachyocrinus, Pachydomus, Noto- 

 mya and Eurydesma, — new forms at present only known in Au- 

 stralia) are abundant in the carboniferous rocks of Britain, many 

 of them not being found in any higher series, and several of them 

 not being known in any older deposits, so that the age, even if 

 we only look to the genera of the fossils, is clearly limited to the 

 carboniferous period; but when we descend to the critical exami- 

 nation of species, we find so extraordinary and unexpected an 



