I 50 Chapman, Geological History of Australian Plants. [voT'^^'xxxV 



plant remains in the Wianamatta shales have been referred 

 to by Feistmantel,* and are : — Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, 

 Morr., sp., Odontopteris microphylla, McCoy, Pecopteris tenui- 

 folia, McCoy, Cladophlehis australis, Morr., sp., and Podozamites 

 distans, Presl. From the fact that this topmost series of the 

 Trias contains myriads of the little branchiopod, Estheria, I 

 would be inclined to regard these beds as Rhaetic, as in the 

 northern hemisphere, where this crustacean similarly occurred 

 in geologically ancient fresh or brackish lakes in Scotland and 

 England. Reverting to the Bacchus Marsh locality, McCoy 

 has already named a Ptilophylliim {P. Offlceri) f from the 

 Triassic sandstone of Bald Hill, and provisionally referred 

 other plant fragments to Schizoneura.X Having examined this 

 specimen afresh, I can confirm McCoy's identification of the 

 Ptilophylliim, which, by the way, appears to be closely allied 

 to P. oligoneiiruin, T. Woods. § 



The Hawkesbury Series (Triassic) of New South Wales, 

 taken as a whole, is particularly rich in plant remains, amongst 

 which are Phyllotheca Hookeri and Schizoneiira aiistrale, in the 

 equisetalean group ; Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, Cladophlehis 

 denticiilata, var. australis, Tceniopteris {Macrotcsniopteris) 

 wianamattcB, Tceniopteris lentriciilifonnis, Stenopteris rigida, and 

 Cycadopteris scolopendrium, amongst the ferns or Pterido- 

 spermi ; Podozamites lanceolatns, a cycad ; Ginkgo dilatata and 

 Baiera mtiUifida, in the ginkgoales ; and Araiicarites, a conifer. 



The conifers, from their first appearance in Carbopermian 

 times, were becoming established through the Trias and Lower 

 Jurassic, until, in the Middle and Upper Jurassic, they often 

 form the bulk of the Victorian black coal. The ferns and other 

 components of the humid zone were greatly in evidence ; whilst 

 the ginkgoales seem to indicate a moist forest vegetation. On 

 the other hand, there were marked differences between the 

 floras of the Lower Mesozoic in New South Wales and the 

 Ipswich Series in Queensland, probably due to differences in 

 local conditions, such as the arid tracts indicated by the aeolian 

 deposits of this period. For the coast had been subjected to 

 a stage of base-levelling shown in the wonderfully rich fish 

 fauna that probably had its habitat in numerous chaiub of 

 brackish lakes periodically inundated by high tides. 



*Mem. Geol. Surv. N, S. Wales, Pal., No. 3, 1890, p. 40. 



f Proc. R. Soc. Vict., vol. vi., 1894, p. 143. 



+ Ann. Rep. Secy. Mines, Vict., 1891 (1892), p. 30. See also "Records 

 Geol. Surv. N. S. Wales," vol. iv., p. 32. The reference by McCoy to the 

 " Schizoneiira bed " as underlying the Gangamoptcris bed is due to an 

 error in Ferguson's first report, but since rectified by him. Ofiicer and 

 Balfour [op. cit., 1894, p. 143) correctly surmises this bed to be above the 

 Gangamoptcris bed. 



§Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, vol. viii., 1883, p. 149, pi. vii., figs. 2-4. 



