129 Mr Arber, On the earlier 
NEWELL Arper, 8c.D., F.G.S.,. Trinity College, Cambridge, 
Demonstrator in Paleobotany. | 
On the earlier Mesozoic Floras of New Zealand. By EK. A 
[Read 25 November 1912.] 
THE presence of the “Terra Nova,” the ship of Capt. Scott's 
Second Antarctic Expedition (which is still at work in the far 
South), during the winter months of the last two years in New 
Zealand waters has led to the collection of materials which are 
likely to add considerably to our knowledge of the earlier fossil 
floras of that island. For the seizing of this opportunity we are 
indebted to Mr D. G. Lillie, B.A., of St John’s College, a member 
of the Biological Staff of Capt. Scott’s expedition. Mr Lillie, who 
previous to his departure for the South had had considerable 
experience of the art of fossil plant collecting in this country, has 
set himself the task of making fresh collections by modern methods 
from the oldest (in a geological sense) plant-bearing beds in New 
Zealand. He has also been the means whereby the best of the 
fossil plant material, already collected by the Survey and other 
institutions in New Zealand, has been sent on loan to Cambridge 
to undergo a thorough examination for the first time. I thus 
hope within the next few years to offer a fairly complete account - 
of the older Mesozoic floras of these islands. 
In the present communication I have a two-fold object. In 
the first place it is proposed to make some brief remarks on 
the nature of the new material collected last year by Mr Lillie, in 
conjunction with Mr R. Speight, F.G.S., of the Canterbury College, 
Christchurch, New Zealand, from the celebrated Mount Potts 
beds, the geological age of which has remained so long in doubt. 
In the second it is proposed to revise our present knowledge of the 
pre-Cretaceous floras of New Zealand. 
The Mount Potts Beds. 
Since the discovery in 1878 of the fossil flora of the Mount Potts 
beds by McKay, a controversy has raged, on and off, in New Zealand, 
as to the character and geological age of the flora of these beds in 
the Rangitata Valley, Ashburton County (Canterbury), while in 
Europe subsequent uncertainty has also continued until this day 
on these points. In that year it was asserted, by Hector, that 
Glossopteris occurred in these beds, and the impression has come 
