Sept. 4, 1S84] 



NA TURE 



44 5 



Victoria known as the Bacchus Marsh beds. From these beds 

 two species of Gangamopteris have been described by McCoy. 

 Gangamopteris, it should be recollected, is a genus of ferns 

 closely allied to Glossopteris, and abundant in the Damuda and 

 still more so in the Karharbari beds of the lower Gondwanas in 

 India. 



5. Wianamaita Beds. — These are the highest portion of the 

 whole system in New South Wales. They contain the following 

 organic remains : — 



ANIMALS. 

 Pisces. — Palceoniscus antipoieus, Clillirolepis granulates. 



PLANTS. 

 Filices. — Thinnfeldia (Peoptcris) odonlopteroides, Odontopte- 

 ris microphylla, Pecopleris tenuifolia, Taniopteris wiana- 

 niattcz. 

 Equisetace.e. — Phyllotheca hookeri. 



The fish from the Wianamatta, Hawkesbury, and Newcastle 

 beds, four in number, were considered as a whole by Sir 

 P. Egerton to be most nearly allied to the Permian fauna of 

 Europe. 



The Wianamatta -plants, like those in the lower beds, are 

 classed as Jurassic. 



6. Htghei Mesozoic Pea's. — These, which do not appear to 

 have been traced into connection with the Wianamatta and 

 Hawkesbury beds, occur in widely separated localities, from 

 Queensland to Tasmania. The correlation of these widely 

 scattered deposits, and the assignment of them collectively to a 

 position above that of the Wianamatta beds, appear solely 

 founded upon the fossil flora, and it would be satisfactory to have 

 in addition some geological evidence or some palaeontological 

 data derived from marine fossils. The Queensland flora is said 

 to occur in beds overlying marine strata of Middle Jurassic 

 age. 



The following plants are recorded from these higher beds : — 



Cycadeace.-e. — Zamites (Podozamitcs), 3 sp. ; Otozamites, I. 

 Filices. — Sfhenopleris, 1; Thinnfeldia, I; Cyclopteris, 1; 



Alethopteris, 1 ; Tmniopteris, 1 ; Sagenopteris, 1. 

 Equisetace.e. — Phyllotheca, 1. 



Tabulating, as in the case of the Indian Gondwana system, 

 the age of the different Australian subdivisions as determined by 

 : ! plants and animals on purely paljeontological grounds, 

 we have the following result : — 



6. Higher Meso2oic beds . 

 5. Wianamatta beds . . 

 4. Hawkesbury beds . . 

 3. Newcastle beds . . . 

 2. Lower Coal-Me 



Lower Carboniferous beds 



South Africa. — In connection with the later Palaeozoic and 

 older Mesozoic rocks of Australia and India, it is of importance 

 to mention briefly the corresponding fresh-water or subaerial 

 formations of Southern Africa, although in that country there -are 

 not such marked discrepancies in the palaeontological 

 perhaps because the relations of the beds with remains of animals 

 to the plant-bearing strata are less clearly known. It will be 

 sufficient to notice some of the most prominent peculiarities of 

 these formations here, as I hope that, a fuller account will be 

 given to the section by Prof. Rupert Jones, who has made 

 an especial study of South African geology. 



In the interior of South Africa, occupying an immense tract 

 in the northern parts of Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, 

 Transvaal, and the deserts to the westward of the last two, there 

 is a great system of sandstone and shales with some coal-beds 

 generally known as the Karoo formation. The sequence of sub- 

 divisions is the following (Q. J. G. S. xxiii. 1S67, p. 142) : — 

 Stormberg beds, about 1800 feet thick 

 Beaufort ., ,, 1700 ,, 



Koonap ,, ,, 1500 ,, ,, 



The beds are but little disturbed in general, and form great 

 plateaux. They rest partly on Palaeozoic rocks (Carboniferous 

 or Devonian), partly on gneissic formations. As in Australia, 

 the underlying Palaeozoic rocks contain a flora allied to the 

 Carboniferous flora of Europe. 



At the base of the Karoo formation are certain shales with 

 coal, known as the Ecca beds, and remarkable for containing 

 a great boulder-bed, the Ecca or Dwyka conglomerate (Suther- 

 land, Q.J. G. S. xxvi. p. 514). like that in the Talchir beds in 

 India and the Hawkesbury sandstone in Australia, the boulders, 

 precisely as in the Talchir beds, being embedded in fine compact 

 silt or sandstone, which in both countries has been mistaken for 

 a volcanic rock. The Ecca beds arc said to contain Glossopteris 

 and some other plants, but the accounts are as yet somewhat im- 

 perfect. The whole Karoo system, according to the latest 

 accounts, rests unconformably on the Ecca beds, whilst the 

 Ecca beds are conformable to the underlying Pala:ozoic strata. 



Unfortunately, although a considerable number of animals and 

 a few plants have been described from the "Karoo formation,' - 

 it is but rarely that the precise subdivision from which the 

 remains were brought has been clearly known. 



The known species of plants are very few in number : Glos- 

 sopteris browniana, and two other species of Glossopteris (one 

 classed by Tate as Dictyopteris, 0- ./■ G. S. xxiii. p. 141) Rubid- 

 gea, a fern nearly akin to Gangamopteris and Glossopteris, and a 

 Phylhthcca-X\Vc stem are recorded, without any certain horizon, 

 but probably from the Beaufort beds. There is no doubt as to 

 the 1 lose similarity of these plants to those of the Damudas of 

 India and the Newcastle beds of Australia. 



From the Stormberg beds there are reported Pecopleris or 

 Thinnfeldia odontopteroides, Cyclopteris cuneata, and Tceniopteris 

 daintreei (Dunn, " Report on Stormberg Coal-Field," Gcol. Mag. 

 1879, p. 552), three of the most characteristic fossils of the 

 uppermost plant-beds in Australia, and all found in the upper 

 Jurassic Queensland beds. 



The animals found in the Karoo beds (Ow-en, " Cat. Foss. 

 Rept. S. Africa, Brit. Mus. 1S76," &c.) are more numerous. by 

 far than the plants. The greater portion have been secured from 

 the Beaufort beds. They comprise numerous genera of dicy- 

 nodont, theriodont, and dinosaurian reptiles, two or three genera 

 of labyrinthodont amphibians, some fish allied to Palceoniscus 

 and Aniblyplerus, and one mammal, Tritylodon. Of the above 

 the Tritylodon and some reptilian and fish remains are said to be 

 from the Stormberg beds. 



Tritylodon is most nearly related to a Rhsetic European 

 mammal. The relations of the reptiles called Thcriodonlia by 

 Sir R. Owen are not clearly defined, but representatives of them 

 and of the Dicynodontia as already noticed are said to be found 

 in the Permian of Russia. The Glossopteris and its associates 

 may of course be classed as Carboniferous or Jurassic, according to 

 taste. Neither the fauna nor flora show sufficiently close relations 

 to those of any European beds for any safe conclusions as to age, 

 even if homotaxis and synchronism be considered identical. On 

 the other hand, there are remarkable points of agreement with the 

 faunas and floras of the Indian and Australian rocks. 



Away from the typical Karoo area on the coast south of Natal 

 there is found a series of beds, partly marine, sometimes called 

 the Uitenhage (Q. J. G. S. xxvii. p. 144) series. A few ejeads 

 (Otozamites, Podozamitcs, Pterophyllum), a conifer, and ferns 

 (Pecopleris or Alethopteris. Sphenopteris, Cyclopteris) are quoted 

 from them, and three or four of the forms are closely allied or 

 identical with species found in the Rajmahal beds of India. 



It was at first supposed that the plant-bearing beds were 

 lower in position than those containing marine fossils, and the 

 whole of the Uitenhage series was considered as of later age than 

 the Karoo beds. The marine beds were considered Middle 

 Jurassic. Subsequently, however, Stow (Q. J. G. S. xxvii. p. 

 479) showed conclusively that a portion of the marine beds, 

 judging by their fossils, are of uppermost Jurassic or even Neo- 

 comian age, and also that the relation of the plant-bearing beds 

 to the marine strata are far less simple than was supposed (I.e. 

 p. 505, 511, 513, &c). Indeed, to judge from Stow's account, 

 it is by no means clear that a portion of the wood-bed series or 

 saliferous series, to which the plant-beds belong, is not higher in 

 position than the marine Jurassic strata. 



There is a very extraordinary similarity between the geology 

 of the southern part of Africa and that of the peninsula of India. 

 In both countries a thick fresh-water formation, without any 

 marine beds intercalated, occupies a large area of the interior of 

 the country, whilst on the coast some marine Jurassic and Cre- 

 taceous rocks are found, the former in association with beds 

 containing plants. The coincidence is not even confined to 

 sedimentary beds. As in India so in South Africa, the 

 uppermost inland Mesozoic fresh-water beds are capped by 

 volcanic rocks. 



It has been assumed, but not apparently on any clear evidence, 



