490 Br, Fektmantel — The Gondwana Series of India. 



Carboniferous in Australia into higher beds, and became a surviviDg 

 form in our Triassic Damudas. 



These are all facts, supported and proved by the fossils themselves, 

 and not based on any speculative suppositions. 



In Australia we find Glossopteris in the Upper Coal-measures also, 

 without any trace of marine fossils, which proves also the surviving 

 of this genus ; but except Phyllotheca, no other of our Damuda 

 plants is associated with it, even in this upper portion of the Austra- 

 lian Coal-measures. 



Again, in Australia there is found in the lower beds also a genuine 

 Lower Carboniferous Flora (Lepidodendron, Cydostigma, Bhacopteris 

 (Sphenopteris) , etc.), while nothing of this sort is found in India. 



It might therefore rather be supposed that there was no connexion 

 at that time with Australia, where the beds were already deposited 

 when Ghssopteris immigrated into India at a time when this country 

 was in connexion with the Triassic Europe during the deposition of 

 the Damudas. Hence I may assert, concerning the Damuda beds, 

 that :— 



1. There is n© great break between both portions of the Grondwana Series — both 

 containing some related fossils, and the Panchet Group establishing very well the 

 transition. 



2. That no fossU from the Damudas will and can justify the supposition of a 

 Palaeozoic age ; on the contrary, all the plant evidence tends to prove their Triassic 

 age. 



3. That Cycadeous plants are not wanting at all, as Mr. "W. T. Blanford still 

 lately said. ^ 



4. That India was at the time, when the Damudas were deposited, in connexion 

 with the lower Triassic European area, while Glossopteris^ Bgt., survived from Aus- 

 tralia, perhaps through China. 



5. The supposition of a Palseozoic age of the Damudas on account of Glossopteris, 

 Bgt., is not admissible, as all the other plants evidently contradict this, and as there 

 are no animal fossils to prove the suggestion. 



6. It is therefore a quite subjective supposition when Mr. "W. T. Blanford ^ says 

 that the evidence which connects the Damudas with the Australian Carboniferous 

 rocks is about equal to that which tends to show their relations with the Trias of 

 Europe. 



When we consider all these facts, we are able to detect a wide 

 connexion with India during the deposition of the Gondwana Series, 

 but which plainly shows that the supposition of a connexion with 

 Australia is a very weak one, as our Series represents the Juro- 

 Triassic epoch, and not the Carboniferous. 



1. Glossopteris, Bgt., grew first in Australia during the Carboniferous epoch, sur- 

 vived into India, passing perhaps through China, when our country at that time was 

 in connexion with the European Triassic continent, which is distinctly proved by the 

 fossils. 



2. The connexion with Europe lasted till the time when the Rajmahal Flora grew, 

 and this connexion was during the Liassic era. 



3. During the Oolitic times India was continentally connected, from the Jabalpur 

 district through Kachh, Dhagestan, Russia, Middle Europe, etc., and so on to York- 

 shire; at the same time the sea, which deposited the marine Kachh Beds and the 

 Coconada Series, deposited also the South African Upper Uitenhage Group, and was 

 in connexion some time previously with the European Oolitic Sea. 



1 Eecords Geol. Surv. India, vol. ix. No. 3, p. 82. 



2 Eecords, vol. ix. No. 3, p. 84. 



