BY T. W. E. DAVID. 257 



Eastern Australia, ranging from near Cooktown, in Queensland, 

 to South Bruni, in Tasmania, a range in latitude of over 1900 

 miles. To this may be added the isolated occurrence on the 

 Gascoyne River in West Australia. 



No evidence has as yet been obtained to show that Glossopteris 

 ever flourished in South Australia or in the Northern Territory. 



As regards its geological range, one doubtful locality has been 

 cited by Sir F. McCoy, that of Arowa, in New South Wales, 

 where its age may possibly be Carboniferous rather than Permo- 

 Carboniferous; but on the other hand no well established case has 

 come under our notice in which Glossopteris has been found in 

 Australia in association with either Lepipodendron or with 

 Rhacopteris. Glossopteris is the predominant type of plant and is 

 enormously abundant in the Permo-Carboniferous Coal-measures 

 of Queensland, New South Wales, and Tasmania. Three doubtful 

 cases have been recorded from Tasmania of Glossopteris having 

 been found in association with Lower Mesozoic plants, but it is 

 possible that the plants are referable to some form of Sagenopteris 

 rather than to Glossopteris. 



In Queensland undoubted specimens of Glossopteris have been 

 found on a geological horizon, which in the opinion of Mr. R. L. 

 Jack, the Government Geologist, and Mr. W. H. Rands, the 

 Assistant Government Geologist, belongs to that of the Desert 

 Sandstone, and is therefore Upper Cretaceous. The locality, 

 however, has not yet been mapped in detail, and the question of 

 the exact geological horizon whence these specimens were obtained 

 cannot therefore as yet be considered to have been definitely 

 settled. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 



Plate xviii. 



Fig. 1.— The specimen from near Mudgee, showing the attachment of the 

 leaves to the caudex. Nat. size. 



Fig. 2. — Portion of the matrix-cast of the caudex, taken from the hollow 

 impression in Fig. 1, showing the ovo-rhomboidal leaf-scars. 



