HISTORICAL SKETCH. I XI 



(,/') New Zealand. 

 The Glossopteris flora is not known with certainty from New 

 Zealand. 1 Sir James Hector, 2 in 1878, stated that the heds of 

 Mount Potts are full of the leaves of Glossopteris. Further, in 

 1886, he says that "at the base of the Kaihiku Series are the 

 Glossopteris heds of Mount Potts, and in the Kaihiku district 

 Glossopteris occurs in the lower beds as developed in Popotunea 

 Gorge." Crie 3 has also recorded Glossopteris from beds believed 

 to be of Triassic age at Wairoa. Neither of these discoveries 

 has been since confirmed, and the other genera known from 

 New Zealand appear to be typical of a later period than the 

 Permo-Carboniferous. 



VI. South Africa. 



{a) Cape Colony, Natal {including Zululand), and the Orange River 



Colony. 



Apparently the earliest record of fossil plants from South Africa 

 is that of specimens discovered by Bain in the Roggeval (Fish 

 River), which were described by Hooker 4 in 1856, and are here 

 noticed under the name Schizonetcra(?) africana, Feist. Wyley 5 

 referred the beds from which these fossils were obtained to the 

 Koonap division of the Karoo Series. 



Plant-remains from Natal were mentioned by Sutherland as far 

 back as 1855. 6 The first discovery of the Glossopteris flora in 

 South Africa was, however, made by Rubidge 7 in 1859, who 

 obtained specimens from Bloemkop, which he compared with those 

 occurring in India. 



Tate, B in a paper published in 1867, figured Glossopteris and 

 other genera from South Africa. These specimens are now in the 

 Museum of the Geological Society of London. The chief localities 

 were Heald Town (near Fort Beaufort), Bloemkop (near the 

 Sunday's River), Graaf Reinet, and East London. 



' See Etheridge & David (94), p. 2,30. 2 Hector (78), p. 533 ; (86), p. 7 



3 Crie (88), p. 1014. 



4 Hooker (56), p. 227, pi. xxviii, fig-. 1. 



5 See Tate (67), p. 172. 6 Sutherland (55), p. 4 66. 

 7 Rubidge (59), p. 19S. s Tate (67), p. 140. 



