HISTORICAL SKETCH. lxiii 



Zepidodendron from the sandstones associated with the coal at 

 Tulberg, Cape Colony. 



It must, however, be pointed out that, despite the records of 

 Rubidge, Wyley, Grey, Carruthers, and Griesbach, there is still 

 grave doubt whether such typical genera of the Northern type of 

 Permo-Carboniferous flora as Calamites, Zepidodendron, etc. (except 

 SigiUaria and JBothrodendron), have been really found to occur in 

 South Africa in all these localities. Professor Rupert Jones 1 has 

 expressed hesitation as to whether the plants described by Grey 

 were really derived at all from South Africa, and Mr. Seward 8 has 

 recently supported this conclusion. There are specimens in the 

 British. Museum collections (V. 235, V. 2390, and V. 3267) of 

 Zepidodendron, Calamites, and Calamocladus, said to have been 

 derived from the Stormberg Beds, which seem to me to be 

 preserved in shales very unlike any rocks which I have seen from 

 South Africa, and more closely similar to the Coal Measure 

 deposits of this country. 



It is possible that in several cases plant - remains which we 

 should now assign to the genus Phyllotheca have been mistaken for 

 Calamites. 3 It is also probable that badly-preserved specimens of 

 SigiUaria or Bothrodendron may have been identi6ed in some cases 

 as Zepidodendron. These two genera, characteristic of the Northern 

 type <f Permo-Carboniferous flora, have been recently found in 

 association with Glossopteris in South Africa. On the other hand, 

 while placing on one side Grey's determinations as extremely 

 doubtful, and bearing in mind the sources of error in identification 

 suggested above, it is not improbable that some of the records 

 of Zepidodendron from South Africa may have been quite correct, 

 since there exists in the British Museum collection a specimen 

 from the Orange River Colony, described on p. 162, which can 

 only be interpreted as a decorticated cast of a stem of that genus. 

 For the present, however, there must remain much doubt as to 

 whether such Northern types as Zepidodendron are widely dis- 

 tributed in Cape Colony. It is earnestly to be desired that a 

 thorough examination of the flora of the various coalfields of the 

 South African Colonies will be undertaken before very long. 



1 Jones (86), p. 1417, footnote. 2 Seward (03 1 ), p. 88. 



3 See Schwarz (97), pp. 32, M ; Rogers & Schwarz (03), pp. 10(5-7, 109. 



