INTRODUCTION. 35 



of G. digitata (Brongn.), from the Yorkshire coast, which is 

 referred to a new species, G. polaris, Nath. ; this might perhaps 

 be designated G. digitata, var. polaris. Some of the Jackson- 

 Harmsworth plants have been figured in a recent paper by 

 Newton & Teall. 1 The specimens described by the latter authors 

 are referred to the genera Ginkgo, Thyrsopteris, Saiera ?, Fieldenia ?, 

 Podozamites ? ; but the material is insufficient to enable us to do 

 more than express the opinion that the Cape Flora beds may be 

 best compared with Oolitic or Wealden strata of other regions. 



Messrs. Newton & Teall have also described some plant remains 

 from Cape Stephen, about twenty miles west of Cape Flora, which 

 they compare with Schmalhausen's species from Petschora and 

 Tunguska. It is very probable that these Franz Josef plants may, 

 like Schmalhausen's, be referred to a Permian horizon. 



NORTH AMERICA. 

 1. UNITED STATES. 



Fontaine's monograph on the older Mesozoic flora of Virginia 

 contains several illustrations which forcibly recall Lower Oolite 

 plants. It is to be regretted that the drawings of the fossils have 

 not been executed in more detail ; they are often too sketchy, 

 and presumably somewhat inaccurate, to enable one to feel much 

 confidence in the nature of the plants represented. Fontaine thus 

 concludes the discussion on the age and affinities of the flora : 

 "European authors, and especially Schimper, often call attention to 

 the strong resemblance between the Rhaetic and Lower Jurassic 

 floras, the likeness to the Lower Oolite of England being especially 

 striking. In accordance with this fact, the presence of a marked 

 Jurassic element in the flora of these Mesozoic beds, both in 

 Carolina and Virginia, is of itself an evidence that they cannot 

 be older than Rhaetic. We are, then, I think, entitled to consider 

 that the older Mesozoic flora of North Carolina and Virginia is 

 most probably Rhaetic in age, and certainly not older." 2 



1 Newton & Teall, loc. cit. p. 503, pi. xli. 



2 Fontaine (83), p. 128. 



