BY PROFESSOR STEPHENS. 347 



where there is reason to suppose that the Liassic element is of 

 Southern origin, in which case we should accept the Triassic 

 position. 



I should therefore regard the Oreti-Kaihiku as, at any rate, not 

 more ancient than Triassic, and as properly correlated with the 

 Clarence River and Hawkesbury beds, with their Labyrinth odont 

 fossils; and in the same way I suould suppose the Wairoa- 

 Otapiri series to extend upwards into the Oolitic period of the 

 northern hemisphere. (See Capt. Hutton, Geol. N.Z., Q.J.G.S., 

 1885.) 



It is true that in both of these series we find the record of 

 Glossojyteris, a fact which seems to militate against the view here 

 proposed, since in New South Wales this form is undoubtedly 

 Palaeozoic, and perhaps truly Carboniferous. But it appears to me 

 that Glossojyteris must have continued to exist in New Zealand 

 long after its complete disappearance from New South Wales, 

 the region in which it had been present earlier, in greater 

 abundance, and with more numerous species than in any other 

 known part of the Southern Hemisphere. And therefore, 

 disregarding Glossopteris, and relying on the presence of 

 Saurian and Amphibian remains, and the absence of Spirifera 

 and Froductus, I cannot but think that the Oreti-Kaihiku comes 

 in above our upper coal, and that the glacial period which the base 

 of this formation records in New Zealand, was the same period 

 which, without leaving any tokens of its presence, and very 

 possibly without any accumulation of ice at all, closed our Upper 

 Carboniferous period by putting an end to the flora characterized 

 by Glossojyteris, Vertehraria, &c. If so, the Clarence River and 

 Hawkesbury formations may together form the equivalent of the 

 combined Oreti-Kaihiku and Wairoa-Otapiri. 



The succeeding formations in New Zealand are classed by Sir 

 James Hector as Liassic, Jurassic and Lower Greensand, and 

 represent the Rolling Downs formation and the XJitenhage of S. 

 Africa. Capt. Hutton, however, regards them as Lower Jurassic 



