INTRODUCTION. XXV 



ment and distribution also points to an absence of near relationship 

 to Catamites, although the recent discovery by Mr. Etheridge of 

 impressions of the cones of Schizoneura has emphasised the con- 

 clusion that this plant is undoubtedly of Equisetalean affinities. 



One other genus only is worthy of notice, represented by a 

 single species from the earlier Giossopteris - bearing rocks of 

 Australia, Annulwria (?) australis. The affinities of this fossil are 

 very problematical. No Calamitean stems are known in association 

 with it, and in the absence of such it is unwise to insist too 

 strongly on the occurrence of this type of foliage as evidence of the 

 existence of Catamites in Gondwanaland, which the name given it 

 by Feistmantel implies. 



We may conclude that, on the whole, the Equisetalean members 

 of the Giossopteris flora are distinct from those of the Northern 

 Hemisphere, though in Phyllotheca we have a plant which probably 

 is more closely related to Catamites than has been commonly 

 supposed. 



SPHENOPnYLLALES. In the Northern Hemisphere this class is 

 chiefly represented by a single genus, Sphenopkyllum, which is 

 found in both the Devonian and the Lower and Upper Carboniferous 

 rocks. It is a group which is rarely associated with the Giossop- 

 teris flora, only one restricted species occurring in India, and 

 probably in South Africa. It is, however, specially interesting 

 to notice that SphenophyMum speciosum is essentially similar in 

 habit to European members of the genus, although at one time 

 the contrary was supposed. On the present evidence, it is 

 impossible to imagine that this plant was at all a representative 

 member of the Giossopteris flora, although the association of 

 a characteristic northern type with the members of that flora is 

 of great intei'est. It would appear possible that its presence in 

 India may be accounted for by the existence of land connections 

 between the Northern and Southern Permo-Carboniferous continents, 

 a conclusion which the migration of the Giossopteris flora into 

 Russia in Permian times supports (see Map, p. xix), and that in 

 Sphenophyttum speciosum we have simply a member of the Northern 

 flora which had penetrated into India. The existence of land 

 connections ' between Europe and South Africa, of which there is 



1 See Seward (03'-), p. 833. 



