THE 



GEOLO&ICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE II. VOL. III. 



No. XL— NOVEMBER, 1876. 



OIRZCS-IIsrJLXi J^E/TIOHLIEiS. 



I. — On the Gondwana Series of India, as a Probable Eepresen- 



TATIVB OF THE JuRO-TrIASSIO EpOOH IN EuROPE. 



By Ottokar Feistmantel, M.D., 

 Geological Survey of India, 



SINCE Sir Charles Bunbury described the Flora of Nagpur,^ 

 drawing the most rational conclusions, and since Messrs. Old- 

 ham and Morris illustrated a portion of the Flora of the Eajmahal 

 Series in the Eajmahal Hills, ^ nothing of importance has come before 

 the public regarding the Flora of the Indian Plant-bearing Series, 

 although the then abundant material has subsequently been con- 

 siderably increased through the exertion of the officers of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of India, who have also done much to explain the geo- 

 logical relations of the whole Series. 



From them we learn ^ that portions of this great system, either 

 in larger basins or in smaller patches, extend generally from the 

 Eajmahal Hills in the east through Central India into Kachh in 

 the west. Also from this general direction southwards through the 

 Godavari District, as far as the neighbourhood of Madras ; being 

 found again on the south-east coast from Madras to Orissa.^ 



The former name of the beds, i.e. '' Plant-bearing Series," is no 

 longer accurately appropriate ; for the association of a portion of the 

 rocks with animal organisms is proved.^ I therefore adopt the more 

 recent name of " Gondwana Series," proposed by Mr. H. B. Medli- 

 cott,^ for these rocks, as it contains no presumptive indication of the 

 fossil remains, and conveys an idea of collectiveness — all the strata, 

 in fact, belonging to one great Mesozoic epoch. 



Dr. Oldham has given us a paper on the probable age of some of 

 these beds ;'' but when he wrote it, only the Flora of the Eajmahal 

 Hills had been closely examined, and the lists of the fossils from 



' Quarterly Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xvii. pp. 325-346, pi. viii -xii. 



^ Paige ontologia Indica, 1862, vi. fascic, xxxv. plates, 52 pages. 



3 See the ditferent volumes of the Memoirs aud Eecords of the Geological 

 Survey of India. 



* I have indicated it a little nearer in Rec. Geol. Surv. of India, vol. ix. No. 2. 



^ The Kachh Beds with marine and terrestrial animals, the Jabalpur Group ynth 

 terrestrial, also the Kota and Male'ri Beds ; the Sripermatur Group with plants and 

 marine fossils, and the Panchet Group with pretty frequent terrestrial fossils. 



^ Proposed some years ago. 



' Mem. Geol. Surv. of India, vol. iii. 



DECADE II. — VOL. III. — KO. XI. 31 



