268 G. B. Pritchard: 



incidentally remarks that he had proposed the name Gangamop- 

 teris, and that G. angustifolius occurred in the New South 

 Wales coal plant-beds with Glossopteris browniana. 



A little more than ten years later we gain important informa- 

 tion concerning these plants, for in 1875 McCoy published 

 figures and descriptions of three distinct species in his Pro- 

 dromus of the Palaeontology of Victoria. G. angustifolia is 

 characterised by its great length and narrowness, being as 

 much as a foot long, though usually less than one inch wide. 



G. obliqna is a very wide, unequal sided, oblique form of 

 variable size ; while G. spatulata is a symmetrical broad-bladed 

 knife-like form of a few inches in length. 



Tliough these three forms were distinguished from one 

 another and given different specific names, McCoy was fully 

 alive to the possibility of all three belonging to the same plant, 

 and he expresses himself very clearly on this point. ^ 



On the evidence of these Gangamopterids, as interpreted by 

 McCoy, a Mesozoic age was assigned to these beds. 



Then in 1892 there was a fresh burst of enthusiasm, in view 

 of the added interest in the discovery of numerous glaciated 

 pebbles in the associated conglomerates, and the Annual Report 

 for the Department of Mines of Victoria included a brief record 

 of the occurrence of other plants, such as Schizoneura and 

 Zengophyllites. This addition is, I think, sufficiently interesting 

 to quote McCoy's remarks in full: — '"Among the more inte- 

 resting results of my investigations during the year (1891) is 

 the recognition for the first time of, probably, Lower Triassic 

 iRocks of the Bunter Sandstein age, in the geological series of 

 Victoria. For this determination I have had only a few frag- 

 mentary examples filled Avith comminuted plant remains from a 

 newly-discovered bed just under the famous Gangamopteris 

 sandstone of Bacchus Marsh. These few specimens, containing 

 small fragments of plants from below the building sandstones of 

 Bacchus Marsh, are of the highest interest, as the only fossil re- 

 mains found in any connection with the Gangamopteris sand- 

 stones. One of the plant fragments seems clearly to indicate 

 a Srhizontura, and if this identification be borne out l)y addi- 

 tional specimens, which should be procured, the indication 



1 I'rod. Pal. Vic, Dec. ii., p. 12. f 



