144 Chapman, The PalcBozoic Flora. [yj' 



ict. Nat. 

 XXXIV. 



The arborescent cryptogams, represented by the widely- 

 distributed genus Lepidodcndron, are a predominant feature 

 of the Devono-Carboniferous fiora. In New South Wales the 

 lower part of tlie Middle Devonian at Tamworth has yielded 

 Lepidodcndron aiistrale, but the genus and species is more 

 abundant in the higher beds — the Upper Devonian and Lower 

 Carboniferous. In New South Wales certain Lepidodendron 

 horizons are generally referred to the l^pper Devonian, wliilst 

 in Victoria they are called Lower Carboniferous. Htheridge 

 finds Lingula {L. gregaria) associated with these beds, which, 

 however, by its relationship to L. inytiloides of the European 

 Lower Carboniferous, belongs perhaps more properly to the 

 latter formation. Hut it is very evident in studying both 

 floras and faunas in Australia that the well-defined epochs of 

 the northern hemisphere have no such stratigraphical break 

 between them here, the beds being often represented by 

 " passage beds." The Upper Devonian in Victoria has an 

 interesting flora, contained in tlie red and yellow sandstones 

 of Iguana Creek, in East (iippsland, where the moderately 

 large strap-shaped leaves of the semi-aquatic gymnosperm, 

 Cordaiies, occurs, together with the oldest-recorded Australian 

 ferns, Sphenopteris igiianensis and ArcJueopteris Howitti. A 

 similar flora in New South Wales contains, besides Cordaiies 

 aiisfralis and Archccopteris Hmvitti, Pecopteris obsciira and 

 Sphenopteris Car net. The genus Cordaiies is found elsewhere 

 in the Middle and Upper Devonian of North America and in 

 the Carboniferous of Europe. 



In the Carboniferous of Australia we have an apparently 

 sudden increase in the members of the palaeozoic flora. Lepido- 

 dcndron is much in evidence, and in this period was widely 

 distributed, reaching as far as South Africa, where it is found 

 in the Lower Karoo of the Orange River Station.* In Car- 

 lioniferous times the Australian landscape must have presented 

 a glorious sight, and the graceful habit of the trees, combined 

 with the beauty of the ferny undergrowth of Archcropicris 

 and Sphenopteris, would no doubt favourably compare in 

 beauty with some present-day aspects of Queensland sub- 

 tropical scenery. As Seward remarks, f " A fully-grown Lepido- 

 dcndron must have been an impressive tree, probably of sombre 

 colour, relieved by the encircling felt of green needles on the 

 young, pendulous twigs. The leaves of some species were 

 similar to those of a fir, while in others they resembled the 

 filiform needles of the Himalayan Pine, Pinus longifolia." 

 The type form, L. aiistrale, is found in \'ictoria, Queensland, 

 and New South Wales, and it has been suggested that the 



* Seward, " Geol, Mag.," vol. iv., 1907, p. 481. 

 t /Jem, " Fossil Plants," vol. ii., 1910, p. 95. 



