lviii HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



This paper also includes a discussion on the fructification of 

 Phyllotheca australis, and an account of the distribution of silicified 

 woods in Australia. 



It has been stated by several observers that Glossopteris occurs 

 in the Desert Sandstone of Queensland, a deposit of Cretaceous 

 age. It was first recorded from these beds by Norman Taylor ' in 

 the year 1874. In 1890, Rands 2 discovered some specimens, wbich 

 were identified by Mr. Etheridge, jun. as undoubtedly fronds of 

 Ghssopteris, and identical with specimens of Pe rmo-Carboniferous 

 age, from beds resembling the Desert Sandstone, and stated to 

 overlie the Rolling Downs formation, at a locality known as Betts 

 Creek, within a mile of Conglomerate Gully in the Cape Goldfield. 

 Dr. Jack 3 afterwards visited this locality, and emphatically confirmed 

 the conclusion that the rocks developed there belong to the Desert 

 Sandstone formation. Despite the authority of these statements, 

 one cannot help feeling that this matter requires yet further 

 confirmation, since this evidence is entirely opposed to that of 

 all the other regions from which Lower Cretaceous plant-remains 

 are known ; a flora remarkable for its worldwide uniformity of 

 distribution, and one in which Glossopteris does not occur. That 

 genus is unknown elsewhere, in beds of later age than the Rhastic. 



(d) Western Australia. 



The records of the Glossopteris flora from Western Australia are 

 few in number. In 1893, the late Mr. Robert Etberidge, 4 sen., 

 detected portions of Glossopteris and Noeggerathia in coal from the 

 Collie River Coalfield. In the following year, Professor Edgeworth 

 David 5 stated that Mr. B. H. Woodward had recognised Glossopteris 

 Browyiiana from the Gascoyne River, West Australia. 



It maybe also added that Mr. Kidston 6 has figured imperfect 

 fragments of a Lepidodendron, Stigmaria, and Cype rites-like leaf 

 from Yarralla Hill, near the mouth of May River (King Sound). 



' See Jack & Etheridge (92), p. 559. 



2 Rands (91), p. 10 ; see also Jack & Etheridge (92), p. 518. 



3 Jack & Etheridge (92), pp. 518-520, 558 ; Etheridge & David (94), p 



4 Etheridge, sen. (93), p. 241. 



5 David, in Etheridge & David '94). p. 256. 



6 Kidston (90), p. 102, pi. iv, tigs. 4, la, 5, (3, 6*(. 7, 7". 8, 8«. 



