290 Dr. H. Woochvard — Anstralian Mesozoic Plants. 



the nature of the districts visited. Sometimes an intelligent Squatter 

 or Miner is thus enabled to render most valuable service to the 

 Colonial Geologist. 



Having lately received from Mr. H. Y. Lyell Brown some 

 specimens brought in by explorers, from Mount Babbage, Mount 

 Adams, from Cutaway Hill, and from Mount Gammon, Aroona, and 

 other localities in South Australia, I propose to give a short account 

 of some of them here. 



Fossils from Mount Babbage. — According to Hargrave's Map of 

 South Australia, published in 1864, Mount Babbage appears to be 

 situate at the head of Hamilton Creek, which runs into the northern 

 portion of Lake Frome, and is a considerable distance to the south- 

 east of Blanche Water ; being 30° S. lat. and 140° E. long. 



The fossils from this locality consist of plant-remains almost 

 entirely converted into a pure quartzite, only superficially stained 

 with iron and having slight traces of carbonaceous matter remaining. 



1. — The most interesting of these is the fragment of a small stem 

 (Plate YIT. Figs. 1, 2), the internal structure of which has dis- 

 appeared and the cavity has been occupied by quartzite. On the 

 exterior a thin carbonaceous crust, most of which is now removed, 

 renders more prominent a fine net- work of extremely minute com- 

 pressed elliptical or lozenge-shaped scars, indicating the bases of the 

 petioles; 6 of these scars meastire only 20 millimetres in breadth, and 

 9 scars occupy the same space in height. The diameter of the stem 

 is 5 centimetres. 



The fraginent is, I have no doubt, a portion of the stem of a 

 plant which has been closely covered with leaves, such as we find in 

 some Monocotyledonous plants like the " Black-Boys " and " Grass- 

 trees" {Xantlwrrliaa and Kingia) of Australia, or perhaps still more 

 like those Cycadese whose stems are covered with the permanent 

 bases of the leaves. I have compared this specimen with the figures 

 of Mantellia inclusa, Carr., given by Mr. Carruthers in his Memoir on 

 " Fossil Cycadean Stems from the Secondary Eocks of Britain " 

 (Trans. Linn. Soc. Lend. vol. xxvi. 1868, p. 703, tab. Ixiii. figs. 2 

 3), and have reproduced his fig. 3 on our Plate (PI. YII. Fig. 4) for 

 reference. 



Of course but little can be said in the way of detailed description 

 of so fragmentary a fossil remain ; nevertheless from the comparison 

 I have made, 1 am inclined to consider this fossil to belong to the 

 Cycadem and perhaps to the genus Mantellia. If it be desirable, for 

 convenience of i-eference, to give it a specific name, I would suggest 

 M. Babbagensis as its trivial name, after the locality from whence it 

 was derived. 



This represents, so far as I am aware, the smallest Cycadean-like 

 stem hitherto recorded from any locality. 



2. — The next specimen to which I wish to call attention is from the 

 same locality ' as the last, and is preserved in an exactly similar 

 matrix of quartzite. (See Plate YII. Fig. 6.) 



1 Some of the specimens are labelled " Mt. Adams." Is Mt. Adams synonymous 

 with Mt. Babbage ? This is a point which should be cleared up. 



