TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 697 



The upper Gondwanas, where best developed, attain a thickness of 11,000 feet,. 

 and the lower of 13,000 ft. 



The Talchir and Barakar subdivisions are far more generally present than any 

 of the others. 



Talchir. — The Talchir beds consist of fine silty shales and fine soft sandstone.. 

 Very few fossils have been found in them, and these few recur almost without 

 exception in the Karharbari stage. The Talchirs are principally remarkable for the 

 frequent occurrence of large boulders, chiefly of metamorphic rocks. These 

 boulders are sometimes of great size, 6 feet or more across, 3 to 4 feet being a. 

 common diameter ; all are rounded, and they are generally embedded in tine 

 silt. 



Karharbari. — The Karharbari beds are found in but few localities. Theyr 

 contain some coal-seams, and the following plants have been met with : — l 



CoNlFERiE. — Euryphyllum, 1 sp. ; Voltoia, 1 ; Albert ia, 1 ; Samar apsis, 1. 



Cycadeace^j:. — Glossozamites, 1 ; NoeggeratAiopsis, 1. 



Filtces. — Neuropteris, 1 ; Glossopteris, 4 ; Gangamopteris, 4 ; Sageno- 



pteris, 1. 

 Equisetace^e. — Schizonenra, 2 ; Vertebraria, 1. 



The most abundant form is a Gangamopteris. The Voltzia (T". heterophylldy 

 is a characteristic Lower Triassic (Bunter) form in Europe. The Neuropteris and. 

 Albertia are also nearly related to Lower Triassic forms. The species of Gangamo- 

 pteris, Glossopteris, Vertebraria, and Noeggeratkiopsis are allied to forms found in 

 Australian strata. 



Damuda. — The Dainuda series consists of sandstones and shales with coal- 

 beds; the floras of the different subdivisions present but few differences, and the 

 following is the list of plants found :— 2 



. Conifers. — Phipidopsis, 1 sp. ; T'olfzia, 1 ; Samaropsis, 1 ; Oychpitys, 1. 



Cycadeace.t:. — Pterophyllum, 2 ; Anomozamites, 1 ; Noeggeratkiopsis, 3. 



Filices. — Sphenopteris, 1 ; Dicksoma, 1 ; Alethopteris, 4 ; Pecoptens, 1 ;. 

 Merianopteris, 1 ; Macrotmiiopteris, 2; Paleeovittaria, 1 ; Angiopteridium,2- T 

 Glossopteris, 19 ; Gangamopteris, 7 ; Belemnopteris, 1 ; Anthrophyopsis, 1 ;. 

 Dictyopteridium, 1; Sagenopteris, 4 ; Actinopteris, 1. 



Equisetaceje. — Schizonenra, 1; Phyllotheca, 3; Trizygia, 1; Vertebraria, 1, 



The only remains of animals hitherto recorded are an Pstheria and two> 

 Labyrinthodonts, hrachyops laticeps and an undescribed form formerly referred to 

 Archegosaurus. The only European genus allied to Prachyops is of Oolitic age. 



The most abundant of the above-named fossils are Glossopteris and Vertebraria* 

 "With the exception at Noeggeratkiopsis all the cycads and conifers are of excessive- 

 rarity. More than one-half of the species known are ferns with simple undivided 

 fronds and anastomosing venation. 



For many years European palaeontologists generally classed this flora as 

 Jurassic. 3 This was the view accepted by De Zigno and Schimper, and, 

 though with more hesitation, by Bunbury. The species of Phyllotheca, Ale- 

 thopteris (or Pecopteris), and Glossopteris (allied to Sagenopteris) were considered 

 to exhibit, marked Jurassic affinities. It was generally admitted that the Damuda- 

 flora resembles that of the Australian coal-measures (to which I shall refer 

 presently) more than it does that from any known European formation ; but the 

 Australian plants were also classed as Jurassic. There is no reason for supposing- 

 that the more recent discoveries of Damuda plants would have modified this view; 

 the identification of such forms as true Sagenojrferis and the cycads Pterophyllum 

 and Anomozamites would assuredly have been held to confirm the Jurassic age of 



1 Feistmantel, Pala-ontologia Tndica, ser. xii. vol. iii. 



2 Pal. Ind. ser. ii. xi. xii. vol. iii. 



1 De Zigno, Flora Fossilis Form. Ool. pp. 50, 53 ; Schimper, TraUide PaUontohgie- 

 Yegetale, i. p. 645 ; Bunbury, Q. J. G. S. 1861, xvii. p. 350. 



