146 Chapman, The Palo'ozoic Flora. [v>^"x" 



Nat. 

 XXIV 



indicative of frcsh-watcr or local lacustrine intiucnce onty, and 

 do not yield any coal accumulations so far as these rocks reveal 

 at their outcrops. 



Whilst the coal flora of Europe and Xorth Aim-rica belongs 

 largely to the period of the Lepidodcndron, that of the southern 

 hemisphere comes later, in the great development of Ganga- 

 mopteris and G/ossopteris. In regard to the term Permo- 

 Carboxiferous — or more correctly Carbo-Permiax — there is 

 strong reason for regarding these beds as true Permian.* They 

 are contemporaneous with the Lower (iondwana of India and 

 the Karoo of South Africa. In Victoria the Carbo-Permian 

 beds consist of glacial conglomerates, corresponding to the 

 Talchir series of India and the Dwyka Conglomerate of South 

 Africa, which pass up into Ganga^noplcris-hcaving sandstones. 

 The fern known as Gangamopleris is common to Russia, India, 

 Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina, and is generally 

 more abundant in the lower part of the G/o,s\s-o/)/m.s-bcaring 

 rocks. Gangamopteris chiefly differs from Glossupteris in the 

 absence of a definite midrib and in having the median anasto- 

 mosing veins almost parallel. In some forms the fronds are 

 much more broadly ovate or rounded than in Glnssopteris, the 

 latter being more uniformly tongue-shaped. 



Whilst the Australian Carboniferous flora shows marked 

 afftnities towards that of Europe in containing Lepidodcndron 

 and Rluicopteris, the Glossopteris flora belongs to a special 

 development of vegetation evolved in a separate area mapped 

 out as Gondwanaland, extending from China through India, 

 Australia, South Africa, South America, and the Antarctic. 

 There are several more or less well defined species of the genus 

 Glossopteris, and their abundance and variety merit the special 

 importance given to this period of vegetative development. 

 The Glossopteris flora is found in all the Australian States (in 

 Victoria represented by (langanwptcris), but only in New South 

 Wales and Queensland have coal measures been extensively 

 formed. In New South Wales the quantity of coal is roughly 

 estimated at 100,000,000,000 tons, and that of Queensland is 

 not far short. The coal scries of Tasmania and Western 

 Australia are insignificant, being represented l)y small seams 

 and poor quality coal. The fossil plant remains, long known 

 as Vertebraria, have been shown to belong to the rhi/.omes of 

 the Glossopteris ferns. Naggcrathiopsis, found in New South 

 Wales and Tasmania, shows some affinities with the Cordailales, 

 which view is held by Zeiller, Seward, and Solms-Laubach : 

 it may therefore be an interesting survival from Devonian 

 times in Australia of a component of the European flora. Tlu- 



" See David, " Federal Handbook Brit. Assoc," 1914, \>. 267. 



