of the Rocks associated with the Coal of Australia. 311 



amount of agreement between those beds and the similar shales, 

 sandstones and impure limestones forming the base of the car- 

 boniferous system in Ireland, that it is impossible not to believe 

 them to be nearly on the same parallel, and there is equal diffi- 

 culty in imagining them to be either younger or older than 

 those deposits. Of those species no less than eleven are be- 

 lieved to be positively identical, on the most careful comparison 

 of the Australian and Irish specimens, and nine more are so 

 closely allied that it has been found impossible to detect any 

 difference of character, but which, either from imperfect preser- 

 vation or want of sufficient specimens to display all the characters, 

 have not been specifically identified. With such evidence as I 

 have mentioned, I do not think it improbable that a wide geolo- 

 gical interval occurred between the consolidation of the fossi- 

 liferous beds which underlie the coal, and the deposition of the 

 coal-measures themselves ; that there is no real connexion between 

 them, but that they belong to widely different geological systems, 

 the former referable to the base of the carboniferous system, the 

 latter to the oolitic, and neither showing the slightest tendency 

 to a confusion of type. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES IX. to XVII. 



Plate IX. 



Fig. 1. Vertebraria australis (M'Coy). 



Fig. 2. Otopteris ovata (M' Coy). 



Fig. 3. Cyclopteris angustifolia (M'Coy). 



Fig. 3 a. Neuration of ditto magnified. 



Fig. 4. Sphenopteris flexuosa (M'Coy). 



Fig. 4 a. Pinnule of ditto magnified to show the neuration. 



Fig. 5. Glossopteris linearis (M'Coy). 



Fig. 5 a. Neuration of ditto magnified. 



Fig. 6. Pecopteris (?) tenuifolia (M'Coy). 



Plate X. 



Fig. 1. Sphenopteris hastata (M'Coy). 

 Fig. 1 a. Pinnule of ditto magnified. 

 Fig. 2. Sphenopteris germana (M'Coy). 

 Fig. 2 a. Pinnule of ditto magnified. 

 Fig. 3. Sphenopteris plumosa (M'Coy). 

 Fig. 3 a. Pinnule of ditto magnified. 



Plate XI. 

 Fig. 1 . Inflorescence of Phyllotheca. 

 Fig. 2. Phyllotheca ramosa (M'Coy). 

 Fig. 3. Decorticated stem with scar of branch. 

 Figs. 4&5. Phyllotheca Hookeri (M'Coy). 

 Fig. 6. Magnified part of leaf of ditto to show the midrib. 

 Fig. 7. Stems of ditto, without their sheath, to show their sulcation. 

 Fig. 8. Cladochonus tenuicollis (M'Coy). Lower figure magnified. 

 Fig. 9. Strombodes, (?) australis (M'Coy). 



