FORMER LAND CONNECTIONS. 



12T 



important deposit is appropriately known as the Karroo Formation, 

 or System. 



Fig. 1. 



Hypothetical restoration of Gondwan aland at the close of 



the Carboniferous Epoch. The ruled areas are those known 



to have been covered by ice, the arrows indicating the 



direction of movement of the latter. 



Rise and Spread of the Glossopteris Flora. 



In the other sections of the Continent rather similar condition* 

 held sway, and, strikingly, the deposits in each of the areas are 

 characterised by the presence of the Glossopteris flora. This is 

 even the case with Antarctica, for fronds of Glossopteris and pieces 

 of fossil coniferous wood have been discovered in the Beacon Sand- 

 stone of South Victoria Land, now a treeless frozen territory. The 

 find is, however, no more extraordinary than that of plants proving 

 a temperate and even an approach to a sub-tropical climate during 

 the Middle Tertiary in regions of quite as high a latitude, namely, 

 Spitzbergen and Greenland. 



The origin of the southern flora is uncertain, but what may 

 possibly be its earliest appearance is indicated by the recent dis- 

 covery by Mr. T. N. Leslie at' Vereeniging of fronds of the 

 important allied genus Gcmgamopteris below the glacial moraine, so 

 that here the flora must have been at least contemporaneous with 

 glacial conditions. 



