44 ON THE FOSSIL FLORA OF THE COAL DEPOSITS OF AUSTRALIA, 



In the latter part of the year 1857 a select commission was 

 appointed by the Parliament of Victoria to examine into the coal 

 lields of that colony. In the evidence published with the report 

 there is much information about coal and the coal plants of Aus- 

 tralia, but the opinions given as to the age of both are conflicting. 

 A short time subsequently searches for coal were instituted near 

 Geelong in Victoria, and on the Wannon River in the western 

 part of that colony. The origin of that search was the occurrence 

 of shales with imperfect plant remains in a rock which bore much 

 resemblance to Jurassic strata in Europe. The result of borings 

 was the discovery of fragments of Cycadaceous plants (Pcdo- 

 zamites), ferns (Tceniopteris, Alethopteris) and at the Wannon a 

 Unio (Unio dacombi, M'Coy). All these discoveries were re- 

 corded in the local papers, the Geelong Advertiser and the 

 Portland Guardian of various dates in 1859. 



In 1860 a long discussion took place between the Rev. W. B. 

 Clarke and Prof. M'Coy as to the age of the beds to which these 

 fossils should be referred. The papers containing this are 

 published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria 

 for 1860. Prof. M'Coy maintained that the fossils were of Oolitic 

 age, and that as so many were identical with fossils found in the 

 Newcastle seams of New South Wales, the whole should be 

 referred to the same geological horizon. Mr. Clarke combated 

 both conclusions, but the controversy turned more particularly on 

 the significance of Tainiopteris. 



In the following year Mr. Clarke published a paper on the 



relative position of certain plants in the coal bearing seams of 



Australia.* The occasion of the paper was statements by Count 



de Zigno that — 1. Mr. Clarke had reported the discovery of 



Sigillaria, Lepidodendron and Stigmaria in the coal beds of New 



South Wales. 2. That these determinations had not been 



verified. 3. That instead, a series of ferns had been found, which 



with types analogous to those of India, recalled the Jurassic flora 



of Scarboroughf . 



* Quart Jour. Geol. Soc, London. Vol. 17, p. 354. 



f Some Obs. on the Flora of the Oolite, Quart. Journ.Geol. Soc., London. 

 Vol. 16 (1860), p. 111. 



