BY THE REV. J. E. TENIS0N-W00DS, F.G.S., F.L.S. 39 



History. — The first notice of any coal plants of Australia 

 would appear to be by A. Brongniart, who, in his History and 

 Table of Fossil Plants, notices Phyllotheca australis and some 

 other plants as coming from Australia, but without any further 

 information. * He also gives a description of Glossopteris 

 broivniana f also an Australian Fossil. 



In the Edinb. New Phil. Journ. for September, 1832 and 

 January, 1833, p. 155, we find a notice of the fossil coniferous 

 woods of Australia by Mr. William Nicholl. The specimens 

 were received from the Rev. C. P. N. Wilton, who collected them 

 from Newcastle, Macquarie Lake and other places. J 



In 1845 Prof. Morris gave the first special notice of Australian 

 Fossil Flora in Strzelecki's Physical Description of New South 

 Wales and Yan Dieman's Land.§ In this essay he described 

 fossils from Newcastle, New South Wales, and Jerusalem in 

 Tasmania. In summarizing the result of a study of the car- 

 boniferous flora, he thought that at the carboniferous period the 

 Australian plants were perfectly distinct from those of the 

 northern hemisphere. He was the first paleontologist who called 

 attention to the resemblance between the local plants of Australia 

 and those of India. He pointed out that there was not only a 

 remarkable analogy of form in some species, but an actual 

 identity in others. It is to be remarked that Professor Morris's 

 Pecopteris australis is now regarded as Alethopteris and P. 

 odontopteroides as Thinnfeldia. 



In 1847 Prof. M'Coy gave an elaborate report on the Fossil 

 Botany and Zoology of the rocks associated with the coal of 



* Prodromus d'une Histoire des Vegetaux Fossiles, p. 152, 8vo. Paris, 1828. 



f Histoire des Vegetaux Fossiles 2 vols., 4to. Paris, 1828. Vol. 1, p. 322. 



X See also The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine for 1832 

 (vol. 1), p. 92, where there is a paper entitled "Sketch of the Geology of 

 six miles of the south-east coast line of the coast of Newcastle in Australia, 

 with a notice of three burning cliffs on that coast. By the Rev. Charles 

 Pleydell Neall Wilton. M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge. Fellow of 

 the Cambridge Philosophical Society and Chaplain of Newcastle. " After 

 this long title it would seem that a foot-note by the Editor saying that the 

 paper was communicated by the author is somewhat unnecessary. 



§ London : Longman, 1845, p. 245. 



