THE GLOSSOPTERIS FLORA. 179 



With one or two exceptions, the Northern Palaeozoic 

 forms are not met with in this Southern vegetation. In 

 Austraha, more particularly, a few well-known Carbonife- 

 rous plants have been found, but these belong to a period 

 represented in Europe by rocks anterior to the Coal 

 Measure epoch. 



In South America and lately in South Africa one or 

 two Coal Measure genera have been discovered, but, 

 generally speaking, the flora of this Southern Continent 

 is characterised by such genera as Glossopteids, Gangaino- 

 pleris, N(£ggerathiopsis and other plants, some of which are 

 absent from the Permo- Carboniferous vegetation in the 

 Northern hemisphere, and others play but a very in- 

 significant part in the composition of the flora. The 

 object of this article is to give a brief summary of this 

 Southern vegetation. 



In 1828 the French palaeobotanist Brongniart ^ figured 

 and described some tongue-shaped and reticulately veined 

 leaf impressions under the generic name of Giossopteris^^ 

 These fossil leaves are abundant in Australia, and had 

 previously been regarded by travellers as specimens of the 

 well-known E2icalypttis. Some of the species included by 

 Brongniart in this genus have since been transferred to 

 other genera, e.g., Glossopteris Pkillipsii Brong. from the 

 Lower Oolite of the Yorkshire coast is now known as 

 Sagenopteris Phillipsii (Brong.). The type species, G. 

 Brownia?ia Brong., still remains one of the best-known 

 examples of the genus. The specimens on which this 

 species was founded were from Australia and India, and 

 Brongniart speaks of the leaves from the former country as 

 G. Browniana var. o Australasica, and those from the 

 latter as G. Browniana var /3 Indica. He describes the 

 Australian forms as smaller in size, subspathulate and obtuse, 

 and the Indian leaves as larger and possessing a lanceolate 



^ Brongniart (i), p. 222, pi. Ixii. 



"He defined the genus as follows: "Folia simplicia, integerrima, 

 sublanceolata, basi sensui angustata, nerve medio valido apice evanescente 

 percursa ; nervulis obliquis arcuatis sequalibus, pluries dichotomis vel 

 basi quandoque anastomosantibus et reticulatis ". 



