4 76 Bihliographical Notice. 



the solution of his question as to the period of existence of the 

 South-African reptiles, is the evidence of the age of the formations 

 in which their remains became fossilized. The grounds on which 

 geology founds its conclusion of such age in relation to the ' Karoo 

 series ' of South Africa, as of the contemporary Panchet beds of 

 India, will be found in the works cited below*. Every specimen 

 described in the present Catalogue, of which the localit}' has been 

 determined, has come from the divisions of that series known as the 

 ' Beaufort ' and ' Stormberg beds.' The latter are the later. But 

 amongst the rich abundance of fossil vegetation in these lacustrine 

 deposits not one example of a cycadeous plant, or other indication 

 of a liassic or oolitic age, has accompanied the vertebrate fossils. 

 The remains of Olossopteris are of a species (G^Z. Browneana) which 

 has never been met with, like the Cycads, in a formation of oolitic 

 age, but is associated in India and Australia, as in South Africa, 

 with palasozoic evidences. 



" The question lies between the triassic and the upper carboni- 

 ferous periods ; but the more generally adopted reference of the 

 Beaufort beds and, especially, the Stormberg beds to a triassic age 

 has been provisionally assigned in the notices of the localities in 

 this Catalogue. 



" The determination of the batrachian double condyle in the 

 Petrophnpie (S. A. 118) from the reddish sandstone of the Tafelberg 

 in the Queenstown district proved its Labyrinthodont affinities, 

 which were indicated by other cranial structures, as a similar 

 demonstration in the Bracliiops f had previously determined the 

 presence of a Labj'rinthodont reptile in the Mangali formations of 

 the Xamthi group in India. Fragmentary evidences, most probably 

 Labyrinthodont, and indubitable fossils of a Dicynodont, concur, 

 with the plant fossils, to show the geological correspondence of the 

 Panchet and Kamthi groups in India with the Beaufort beds in 

 South Africa. 



"Among the considerations which weigh towards the palaeozoic 

 age is the arrest of vertebral development, or retention of embryonal 

 characters, in the centrum of these South-African lleptilia, a cha- 



" * Bain and Atherstoue, id supra. Sutherland, Dr. P. C, ' Notes on 

 the Geology of Natal, South Africa,' Quarterly Journal of the Geological 

 Society, vol. xi. p. 465. Rubidge, Dr. R. N., ' On some Points in the 

 Geology of South Africa,' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xv. p. 195. Stow, 

 C. W., Esq., and Huxley, Prof, ' On some Fossils from South Africa,' ih. 

 vol. XV. pp. 193, 555, 642. Tate, R., Esq., * On some Secondary Fossils 

 from South Africa,' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 139. Griesbach, 

 Charles Ludolf, Esq., ' On the Geology of Natal,' Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc. vol. xxvii. p. 53. Oldham, Thos., LL.D. &c., ' Memoirs of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of India,' 4to. Huxley, Prof, ' On Vertebrate Fossils from 

 the Panch(5t Rocks, in the above ' Memoirs,' 4to, 1865. Blanford, H. F., 

 Esq., * On the Age and Correlations of the Plant-hearing Series of India,' 

 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxi. p. 519. 



" t Owen, Prof., ' Description of a Cranium of a Labyrinthodont 

 Reptile from Mangali, Central India,' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xi. 

 p. 37.'' 



