. Reports & Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 231 



The bearing of the research upon various problems in stratigraphy 

 is considered, especially in relation to recent research by Brydone, 

 Niellsen, E,avn, and Eowe. 



2. "A Preliminary Note on the Fossil Plants of the Mount Potts 

 Beds, New Zealand, collected by Mr. D. G. Lillie, Biologist to 

 Captain Scott's Antarctic Expedition in the Terra Nova in 1911." 

 By E. A. Newell Arber, Sc.D. Communicated by Professor T. McK. 

 Hughes, F.R.S. 



The communication briefly discusses the first results which have 

 reached this country of the late Captain Scott's second Antarctic 

 Expedition. In the winter months of the last two years the Terra 

 Nova has been at work in New Zealand waters. During these 

 periods Mr. D. G. Lillie, one of the biologists of the Expedition who 

 has been attached throughout to the Terra Nova, has been 

 endeavouring to clear up on the evidence of the fossil floras some 

 of the many points which remain unsolved with regard to the 

 stratigraphical geology of New Zealand. In particular, he has made 

 large collections from the Mount Potts Beds, in Ashburton County, 

 Canterbury. Whether these beds contain Glossopteris, as asserted 

 by Hector and others, has long been a matter of dispute, for the 

 whole question whether New Zealand formed part of the great 

 Southern Permo-Carboniferous Continent of ' Gondwanaland ' depends 

 entirely on the character and age of the flora of these beds. 



As it proves, the flora of these beds is thoroughly Mesozoic. It is 

 true that one of the most striking plants represented is one which 

 very closely simulates Olossopteris, but the lateral nerves do not 

 anastomose. This genus ds already known from the Rhsetic of Chili, 

 and has been referred by Solms to the Palaeozoic genus Lesleya. It 

 is, however, here referred to a new genus Linguifolium, and the New 

 Zealand species is distinguished as L. LiUieanum, sp. nov.. The 

 associated species include a new species of Chiropteris, leaves of 

 a JBaiera, similar to the Rhsetic Baiera paucipartita, Nath., with 

 fronds of Dictyophyllum acutilohum (Braun), Thinnfeldia lancifolia 

 (Morris), and Cladophlelis australis (Morris). In addition, the 

 tipper Gondwana conifer, Falissya conferta (Oldh.) and fronds of 

 Tceniopteris Daintreei, McCoy, occur. 



The floi-a as a whole consists chiefly of Rhsetic plants, though a few 

 Jurassic types also occur, and thus tlie age of the beds is either 

 Hhsetic or Lower Jurassic. The Mount Potts Beds are admittedly 

 the oldest plant-bearing series, in a geological sense, as yet dis- 

 covered in New Zealand. No Palaeozoic plants are known from these 

 islands, and there is thus no evidence that they formed part of 

 ' Gondwanaland ' in Permo-Carboniferous times. 



II. — Geological Society of London. 

 (i) March 5, 1913.— Dr. A. Strahan, F.R.S. , President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " The ' Kelloway Rock' of Scarborough." By S. S. Buckman, 

 F.G.S. 



The author has studied the types of ammonites from the Kelloway 



