CARBONIFEROUS PLANTS PERU 15 



to contain Archatocala mites radiatus and Lepidodendron cf. 

 Volkmanni are recorded from Retamito, which is between 

 San Juan and Mendoza in the Argentine Cordillera. 



I think that there can be no doubt that the Paracas Carbon- 

 iferous is younger than the Dinantian stage of the European 

 section and that it corresponds to the Westphalian stage. 

 The marine Carboniferous of the Andes is usually consid- 

 ered to be of Uralian age, that is to say Stephanian in terms 

 of the continental section. Whether or not the marine series 

 represents more than Uralian has not yet been definitely 

 determined. The finding of one at least of the Paracas plants 

 in the lower part of the section on the Copacabanya peninsu- 

 la, Bolivia, several hundred feet below the fossiliferous lime- 

 stones would lead to the inference that the Paracas plant 

 bearing Carboniferous is older than the bulk of the marine 

 Andean Carboniferous and especially the highly fossiliferous 

 portion of the latter. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS 

 Genus PALMATOPTERIS Potonie 



Like the majority of forms treated systematically by Po- 

 tonie, his Palmatopteris furcata is composite and his synon- 

 ymy cannot therefore be relied upon. However, I believe it 

 to be a desirable practise to break up the unwieldly form- 

 genus Sphenopteris whenever this is possible, and therefore 

 adopt Palmatopteris for these Peruvian remains, which are 

 exceedingly common in the Paracas deposits. Despite their 

 abundance they are usually very much broken up, a reflection 

 of the coarse nature of the shales. At times large slabs are 

 covered with the small broken pinnae of this species. 



Palmatopteris furcata (Brongniart) 

 PLATE I Figs. 1-3 



Sphenopteris furcata Brongniart, Hist, veget. foss., p. 179, pi. 49, 

 figs. 4, 5, 1829. 



Sternberg, Versuch, vol. 2, fasc. 5-6, p. 58, 1833. 



