INTRODUCTION. XXI 



have been described from Britain, 1 France, 2 Austria, 3 Russia, 4 

 China, 5 North America, 6 the Arctic regions, 7 and elsewhere. 



80 far we have mentioned only certain areas lying within 

 the Northern Hemisphere. But it is particularly interesting to 

 find that there is a considerable accumulation of evidence as to 

 the existence of plants belonging to this same epoch in some of 

 the provinces in which the (Jlossopteris flora flourished at a later 

 period. Thus either Upper Devonian or Lower Carboniferous plant- 

 remains have been described from New South Wales, 8 Victoria, 9 

 Queensland, 10 and Argentina." With the exception of the last- 

 mentioned, floras belonging to both these periods have been 

 recorded. In India, unfortunately, the earliest plant- bearing 

 sediments are those in which the Glossopteris flora is found, and 

 in South Africa few, if any, plants are known from rocks of 

 earlier age than Permo-Carboniferous. On the present evidence, 

 however, the plant-remains of the Lower Carboniferous and Upper 

 Devonian rocks of the other regions in which Glossopteris flourished 

 at a later period appear to be genetically, and often specifically, 

 identical with those of the Northern Hemisphere. 



We may briefly sum up the botanical affinities of the Lower 

 Carboniferous and Upper Devonian flora as follows : — It consists, 

 so far as is known, of representatives of six great groups. Of 

 these the Equisetales, to which the modern Horsetails belong, are 

 chiefly represented by an ancient and somewhat archaic type, 

 Archceoealamites. The genus Catamites is also found, but com- 

 paratively rarely, in the Lower Carboniferous rocks. The great 

 group of Lycopods, including the modern Club-mosses, is represented 



1 Kidston (03). 

 - Vaffier (01). 

 A Stur (75). 



4 Eichwald (60). 



5 Schmalhausen (S3 1 ), p. 433. 



6 Dawson (73). 

 ' Nathorst (94). 



» Feistmantel (90) ; Etheridge (90-) ; David & Pittman (93) ; Dun (99) 



9 McCoy (74), Prod. i. iv. 



10 Feistmantel (90), p. 54 ; Carruthers (72). 



11 Szajnocha (91). 



