elxvi Proceedings of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal. [N.S., XVII, 
most beds of the Umia stage, which are interstratified with 
marine Lower Cretaceous deposits homotaxial with the Wealden 
of Europe. The general facies of the vegetation continues 
to be Jurassic, the majority of the known species being identical 
with those already occurring in the — stage. The conifers 
are all identical with Jabalpur specie 
The cio Ati fronds Galle one which deserves more 
t assing notice. This is 7'aeniopteris vittata, a species 
Ww nai has long been known from the Jurassic beds of England. 
aw Thomas has recently found evidence to show that the 
a single bisporangiate flower for which he proposed the new 
generic name Williamsoniella (Thomas 1915). 
This dichasia] habit is not seen in any modern Cycads but 
it would seem that it was not a rare feature of fossil cycadean 
stems. 
Reliable data are not yet forthcoming for the identification 
of the Indian frond 7. vittata with the English species, but 
there is a far-reaching agreement in the size, shape and venation 
—almost the only characters that our Indian specimens reveal. 
Nor is it clear beyond doubt that the large number of Indian 
leaves referred to the form — Taentopteris are all Cycadean. 
But the existence, in the Umia beds, of fronds closely similar 
to the Yorkshire species. as w ell as the large number of Taeni- 
opterids in the Rajmahal flora may, I think, be taken to 
indicate that we sinh hopetally look forward to the discovery 
of Indian fructifications of the Williamsoniella type. 
The dawn of the Cretaceous epoch was an eventful period 
eee sae in the history of plants, for it marked the 
a cnos: advent of 2dvent of a new type that was destined 
Angiosperm before long to dominate the vegetation of 
the globe. That this new type of plants 
possessed important structural advantages over its rivals, may 
easily be cae from the rapidity with which it reduced 
them to subjectio 
In India the esl win been recorded from the 
Balmir Sandstones of Rajputana, which have yielded some 
satisfactory records of angiospermous tion ia sot go further 
back than the Lower Greensand a ge. These Balmir plants were 
mentioned by W. T. Blanford as long agoas 1877. More recent- 
ly, in 1902, La Touche raised the question of the age of these 
beds, suggesting that they are probably Cretaceous rather than 
Jurassic unless, of course, Angiosperms appeared in this part of 
the world earlier than they did elsewhere. 
