THE CAPE SYSTEM 159 



occasionally contain thin beds of white quartz pebbles, 

 and also isolated pebbles of the same material. The 

 resemblance between the Witteberg quartzites and the 

 Table Mountain beds was the cause of much confusion 

 in the earl} 7 days of Cape geology, but it is more appar- 

 ent than real. The Witteberg quartzites, as a whole, 

 have a more reddish and yellow tint and are more mi- 

 caceous than the Table Mountain rock, and they are 

 much less massive, shale bands being of comparatively 

 frequent occurrence. The shales are green, dark grey 

 and blue in colour, and they are often very micaceous 

 and sandy, frequently being more properly called thin, 

 irregularly bedded micaceous sandstones than shales. 

 In the Eastern Province there are black carbonaceous 

 shales, which are different from any beds in this series 

 that have been found in the west. The Witteberg beds 

 have so far yielded no remains of animals, and only 

 rather poor specimens of plants which have not been 

 satisfactorily determined for want of good material. 



The following genera of plants have been mentioned l 

 as having been found in the Witteberg beds : 



Didymophyllum Willowmore. 



Selaginites Port Alfred. 



Lepidodendron Grahamstown, Swellendam and Riversdale. 



Lepidostrobus Port Alfred. 



Halonia ,, 



Knorria Swellendam. 



Sigillaria Port Alfred. 



Stigmaria 



Cydostigma Many places in the west of the Colony. 



Bothrodendron Albany district. 



1 This list is taken from Feistmantel, Abh. der Konig. bohm. Gesell- 

 schaft der Wiss., vii. Folge, 3 Bd., 1889, and Schwarz, Bee. Alb. Mus., i., 

 p. 247. 



