88 Annals of the SoutJi African Museum. 



From South America Lower Carboniferous plants are recorded by 

 Szajnocha ''•'■ and Kurtz,! which, hke those from Austraha, point 

 to the ahiiost world-wide occurrence of a vegetation of uniform 

 facies. 



It has often been stated that such European types as Calamites, 

 Lrpidodcndron, and others, also occur in South Africa, but apart from 

 the recently recorded instaiices of the association of Sigillaria with 

 CTlossopteris, &c., it appears to be the case that the statement qu.oted 

 ))y one author from another is based in part on incorrect determina- 

 tion, and largely on a confusion of localities, English or American 

 Coal-Measure fossils having been erroneously assigned to a South 

 African locality. In 1871 Grey ;[ referred to the occurrence of 

 Lcpidodcndron and Sigillaria in the Stormberg district, but Professor 

 Eupert Jones § expressed his belief that the plants in question were 

 either American or English. I have no doubt, as Eupert Jones 

 pointed out, that Grey's specimens were not originally obtained from 

 Africa ; this belief is founded on an examination of several specimens 

 in the British Museum (V. 235, V. 2390, V. 3267), e.g., Calamites, 

 Calamocladus, Lepidodendron, and others, said to have been obtained 

 from Stormberg beds. 



We may next consider what authentic evidence is available bear- 

 ing on the occurrence of Lepidodendroid plants in South African 

 rocks. A few years ago Mr. David Draper, of Johannesburg, for- 

 warded a collection of plants to me from several localities in the 

 Transvaal. Among them were several specimens from Vereeniging, 

 which I described [[ as Sigillaria hrardi Brongn., a species charac- 

 teristic of a high horizon in the North Hemisphere Coal-Measures, 

 and met with also in Permian rocks. This Sigillaria was found in 

 association with Glossoptcris, Ciangamoptcris, and Na'ggerathiopsis, 

 in strata assigned to a Permo-Carboniferous age. Before dealing 

 with the recently discovered plant represented in pi. xi., reference 

 may be made to a few specimens in the British Museum which 

 afford additional illustrations of South African Lycopodiaceous 

 plants. The fossil represented in text-figure 8 (V. 236) was obtained 

 from a locality spoken of as Atherstone Quarry, Kowie. It consists 

 of a piece of flattened stem, 8 cm. long and 2*5 cm. broad, bearing 

 spirally disposed circular protuberances and curved linear append- 

 ages, presumably leaves, of wdiich some are shown in attachment to 

 the edge of the impression. The preservation is not sufficiently 



* Sza,)nocha-{91). t Kurtz (94). + Grey (71). 



§ Jones (84). |1 Seward (97). 



