Maitai Series of New Zealand. 63 



whole with my independent determination of the Kaihiku marine 

 fauna, which is associated with the plant beds at Mt. Potts as of 

 late Middle or early Upper Trias age. 



Since no trace of Glossopteris or any other plant is recorded from 

 the Maitai rocks the palseobotanical evidence is removed. Further, 

 although several coarse conglomerates occur in the Maitai Series, 

 nothing for which a glacial origin can seriously be claimed has been 

 found. The Permo-Carboniferous of New Zealand differs from that 

 of South Africa, the Salt Range, Australia, Tasmania, the Falkland 

 Islands, South America, or other regions of Gondwanaland in the 

 absence of glacial beds or of a Glossopteris flora. There is no trace 

 in New Zealand of a non-marine plant-bearing Permo-Carboniferous 

 series, and there seems no prospect of any turning up. The beds 

 appear to be entirely marine, but were evidently deposited not far 

 from some land mass of continental dimensions. 



The conclusion, therefore, is that although the New Zealand area 

 formed no actual part of Gondwanaland, it lay during the Permo- 

 Carboniferous period not far from the shores of this or some similar 

 great land mass which supplied the materials which build up the 

 Maitai Series. 



In no part of New Zealand has definite l evidence of any 

 unconformity between the Maitai and the Trias been found, and 

 so it is possible that uninterrupted marine conditions persisted from 

 the Permo-Carboniferous times through the Trias and on into, the 

 Jurassic period. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES IV AND V. . 



(All figures natural size except where otherwise indicated.) 

 Plate IV. 

 Fig. 

 l.—Aphanaia sp., cf. Mitchelli, F. McCoy, sp. Hinge and area of left valve. 



Nat. size. Gutta-percha squeeze. Maitai Slates, Wooded Peak, near 



Nelson. Author's collection. 

 2. — Ditto. Cast of right valve of a small specimen showing the concentrically 



furrowed shell. Nat. size. Dun Mountain Tramway, near Nelson. 



New Zealand Geol. Surv. collection. 

 3. — Ditto. Gutta-percha squeeze of apex of a left valve. Nat. size. Maitai 



Slates, Wooded Peak, near Nelson. Author's collection. 

 4. — Ditto. Gutta-percha squeeze of apex and part of the area of a right 



valve. Nat. size. Maitai Slates, Wooded Peak, near Nelson. Author's 



collection. 

 5. — Section of Zaphrentis sp. Magnified 2 diameters. Maitai Limeskme, 



junction of Wairoa and Boding Bivers, Wairoa Gorge. Dr. Thomson's 



collection. 

 6. — Section of the same coral cut rather lower down. 

 7. — Section of Zaphrentis sp., cf. Gregorxjana, de Kon., cut just below the 



calyx. Magnified 2 diameters. Maitai Limestone, junction of Wairoa 



and Boding Bivers, Wairoa Gorge. Author's collection. 

 8. — Section of Maitai Limestone from the Wairoa Gorge' with a cluster 



of prismatic fragments of the large bivalve Aphanaia. Author's 



collection. 



1 The reported occurrence of an unconformity between the Kaihiku and 

 Takitimu Series in the Takitimu Banges seems to require further investigation . 

 Cox, Eep. Geol. Explorations, 1877-8, " Geology of the Te Anau District," 

 p. 113. 



