Ux>per Palaeozoic and Mesozolc Fossilti. 313 



Fossils from thk Caubo-permian' of Queknsland and 

 Western Australia. 



Collected by Messrs. A. C. Gregory and R. Daintree. 



Plantae — Equisetales. 



Phyllotheca austral is, Brongn. (PI. XXVIL, Figs. 6-7). 



Phyllotheca australis, Brongniart, 1828. Hist. Foss. Veget., 

 p. 152. 



Feistniantel, 1878. Palaeontographica, Suppl. Band. III., 

 Lief. III., Heft. 3, p. 83, pi. vi., tig. 3 ; pi. vii., tigs. 1-2 ; pi. xv., 

 tig. 1. Idem, 1890. Mem. Geol. Surv., N.S.W., Pal. No. 3, 

 p. 79, pi. xiv., tigs. 1-4 (tig. 5 = P. deliquescens, Goepp ; see 

 Arber, /oc injra cit., p. 17, synonomy). 



Etheridge, Jun., 1892 (in Etheridge and Jack). Geol. and Pal. 

 of Queensland, p. 189, pi. xvii., tig. 3. 



Arber, 1902. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Iviii., p. 14. 



This species has already been recorded from the Bowen River 

 Coal Field in Queensland, although not from the precise locality 

 as the present example, and it is possible that our specimen comes 

 from the same horizon in the series. 



A slab of black, carbonaceous shale in the present collection 

 is crowded with remains of the stems of Phyllotheca and 

 Archaeocalamites. At tirst sight it seemed possible that these 

 stems were all referable to the genus Phyllotheca, the broader 

 and more closely-grooved forms closely resembling Phyllotheca 

 deliquescens (Goeppert). The presence of leaf-scars was afterwards 

 detected, on a closer examination, which compels one to refer 

 these particular stems to the Calamites section of the Equisetales. 



The stems of Phyllotheca now under consideration are slender 

 and generally coarsely fluted or grooved, having usually only 4 

 to 5 vertical furrows visible. The width of the stems varies 

 from 5 to 10 mm. The leaf-slieaths are well preserved in some 



1 The later (coal-bearing) Carboniferous strata of Australia and Tasmania are usually 

 referred to as Perniooarl)oniferous. There is, however, j,'Ood reason for reversing the 

 components of this term to ensure uniformity with words like Siluro-devonian or 

 Triasi-jura, which refer in their proper age sequence to strata having a mixed fauna. 

 " Hunterian," as suggested by Professor Ralph Tate, is possibly a convenient term to 

 apply to these beds, which, as the Hunter River Series, are so well developed locally. 



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