THE GLOSSOPTERIS FLORA. 193 



Several writers record species of Lepidodendra, Stig- 

 utaria and other familiar genera from strata underlying the 

 Karoo Series of South Africa. Although many references 

 to Lower Carboniferous plants occur in papers dealing with 

 the Geology of the Cape, our exact knowledge of such 

 plants is extremely small ; the specimens are often spoken 

 of as unsatisfactory, and no good figures have so far been 

 published to enable us to form definite opinions as to the 

 nature of the fossils.^ In the British Museum and in the 

 Museum of the Geological Society there are a few speci- 

 mens of plants from South Africa which have been referred 

 to different Coal Measure genera, but the material is ex- 

 tremely poor. Some of the supposed Carboniferous forms 

 recorded from South Africa, for example those mentioned by 

 Gray, are most probably specimens from the Coal Measures 

 of Europe.^ From Culm beds in Argentina Szajnocha^ 

 describes Lepidodendra Pedroanuni, Cam, L. cf. notlnwi, 

 Ung., Rhacoptei'is cf. Machaneki, Stur., Cordaites cf. borassi- 

 foli2LS, Brong., and other forms. Zeiller considers that the 

 plant referred to Lepidodendron Pedroanuui is identical with 

 the Culm species, Lepidodendron Volkornanniannm, Sternb. 

 In considering those Southern Hemisphere plants which 

 agree with Culm and Upper Devonian species from Europe, 

 it is important to bear in mind the fact that the Lepidoden- 

 dron examples are in nearly every case partially decorticated 

 stem casts, and cannot therefore be relied on with much 

 confidence in the comparison of specific types. This 

 danger has been pointed out by more than one writer, and 

 Nathorst^ has recently emphasised the need of caution in 

 his valuable memoir on the Arctic Palaeozoic flora. The 

 plants from Bear Island, Spitzbergen, the Kiltorkan grits 

 of Ireland, the Culm of Moravia and Silesia and other dis- 

 tricts, afford instances of the striking similarity or even iden- 

 tity between the oldest known plants of Africa, South 

 America and Australia and those from high northern latitudes. 

 In India no plant-bearing beds are known older than the 

 Lower Gondwanas. 



^ See Feistmantel (5), Gray, Green, Rubidge, Bain, etc. 



- Feistmantel (4), p. 7. ^ Szajnocha (2). -^ Nathorst. 



