and Pa'cEuntrAogy of Victoria. 197 



localities furnishes much additional interesting information. 

 Thus the Phyllotheca australis is found with the Glossopteris 

 Browniana in the New-South-Wales coal-beds of the Hunter 

 River; so that, although the latter plant has not yet been found 

 in Victoria, it is by this association brought to bear on our beds. 

 Then, again, I have found the Taniopteris Daintrei associated in 

 New Zealand with a new species of Camptupteris [C. Nova Zea- 

 landia, M'Coy) ; and thus by this association we get yet another 

 Mesozoic genus of plants to supi)ort the view of the Mesozoic 

 age of the Victorian coal. Besides these generic forms, so un- 

 like those of Pulseozoic coal, there are numerous species of 

 Pecopteris, Newopteris, Sphenopteris, and other genera havinii: a 

 greater range in time, and, as generic forms, therefore, of no 

 interest in the discussion of the age of our coal-beds; but the 

 species are generally nearly related to the Burdwan and Raj- 

 mahal coal-beds in India, and the Scarborough ones in the 

 Oolitic series of England. One of these, found counnonly near 

 Bellerine (the Pecopteris australis), I have recently compared 

 carefully with specimens of the English Oolitic P. Whithiensis, 

 and am convinced that there is no specific character to separate 

 the Australian fossil, which at most can only rank as a slight 

 variety incapable of definition. The Indian beds of Rajmahai, 

 so closely related to the Australian coal- deposits near Sydney, 

 are now, I believe, satisfactorily connected with the marine 

 Mesozoic beds of that country containing Oolitic Ammonites, 

 Belemnites, &c. 



It is worthy of note tliat the collections illustrative of the 

 coal-deposits of New South Wales sent to the Intercolonial 

 Exhibition by the Rev. W. B. Clarke and Mr. Keene, having 

 been carefully examined by myself in company with Mr. Selwyn, 

 entirely fail to give the slightest support to the view of those 

 gentlemen that the plant-beds and coal are there Palseozoic, as 

 there is no trace of the Siyillaria, Stigmaria, Catamites, &c., 

 said to be so abundant. The fish have the fades of Permian or 

 Triassic forms rather than of Carboniferous, of which period the 

 characteristic abundant forms Psammodus, Cochliodus, Ctenopty- 

 chius, Gyracanthus, Rhi::odus, &c. are as completely absent as 

 the Palaeozoic plants in the plant-beds. Both in New South 

 Wales and Victoria a Lepidodendron occurs, but in beds entirely 

 below those we are speaking of. I some years ago determined 

 the Oolitic age of some marine fossils, including Pentacrinites, 

 Belemnites, Ammonites, &c., which had been sent from New- 

 South- Wales localities to Mr. Clarke, and by him transmitted 

 to His Excellency Sir H. Barkly, for my "opinion as to the 

 geological epoch to which they belonged." 



The sandstones of Bacchus Marsh, probably inferior in posi- 



