502 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
Another instance of these contradictions I quote from the 
“ Manual,” p. 100 :— 
“¢The Kota beds with their liassic fish have now been so closely con- 
nected with the Maleri clays and sandstones containing triassic reptiles 
and fish, and jurassic fish, that both are classed in the same group.” 
The occurence of several genera of Damuda plants more par- 
ticularly Glossopteris in the higher Australian coal-measures, 
passing thence downwards into beds containing carboniferous 
marine fossils, and, lower still, typical carboniferous plants has 
been used as an argument in favour of the view that our Indian 
coal-measures are palzeozoic. Dr. Feistmantel maintains, however, 
that the Australian upper coal-measures are triassic, while the 
lower are undoubtedly carboniferous, Glossopteris having sur- 
vived.* Some of the Australian sections, however, scarcely 
support the view of a distinct separation being possible. 
Mr. W. T. Blanford is of opinion that :— 
“‘The whole evidence, so far as it goes, both of animals and plants, 
tends to connect the whole of the Gondwana series, with formations 
ranging from the upper palzozoic (Permian) to the lower jurassic.” 
It is clear that floras alone afford but an unsafe guide to 
correlation, and for this reason that they, as well, also, as some 
land animals appear to have often survived the wholesale changes 
which have affected the faunas of the neighbouring seas and oceans. 
Although, therefore, it may be dangerous to attempt a close 
correlation of the Indian formations with those of distant countries 
by the evidence afforded by fossil plants, still the advantage of 
employing such evidence as a means of identification between 
widely separated deposits within the limits of India cannot be 
doubted. 
ORIGIN OF THE GONDWANA Rocks.—F rom the evidence afforded 
by the fossils, and the lithological characters of the rocks, it is 
probable that the Gondwana strata were deposited in a series of 
river valleys not unlike those which constitute the Indo-Gangetic 
plains at the present day. The rivers were generally sluggish in 
their movements and occasionally may have formed lakes. 
AREAS OF GoNDWANA Rocks.—The following table of the areas 
* T lately received from Professor Boyd Dawkins some specimens of Glossopteris and 
Vertebraria from the base of the coal-measures at Wallerawang, N. S. Wales. They 
appeared to me on casual examination to be identical with Damuda species. And the 
resemblance in the lithological structure of the shale including them, to a common 
Damuda rock, was no less striking. The specimens have been sent to India for critical 
examination and comparison, 
