Chap. IV.] trichinopoly district — plant beds. 39 



Chapter IV. — Trichinopoly District — Plant Beds. 



The small group of shales and sandstones which I have designated the 



Ootatoor Plant beds, are seen at several points cropping out in five (or six) 



separate patches from beneath the beds of the Oota- 

 Extent and position. 



toor Group. Altogether they extend about 12 



miles in a North and South direction, being finally overlapped by the beds 

 of the Ootatoor Group at Cullpaudy on the N orth, and near Naicolum, a 

 few miles South of Ootatoor, in the opposite direction. As a distinct group, 

 they are of small extent and of little importance, but they become of 

 much interest owing to the nature of their fossil contents, which, with a 

 few doubtful exceptions presently to be noticed, consist of plant impres- 

 sions, principally Palceo-zamia, all in a very fragmentary condition, and, 



owing to the softness of their shaley and sandy 

 Age unsettled. 



matrix, very readily obliterated by friction or 



carriage. These remains have been pronounced by Mr. Oldham, who 

 examined them on the spot, to be in part identical with the species which 

 occur so abundantly in the intertrappean-beds of the Rajmahal hills in 

 Bengal, the precise age of which is still very doubtful. Even as regards 

 the plant-beds now noticed, (apart from any consideration of their contem- 

 poraneity with those of Rajmahal,) their position only proves that they 

 are older than the Ootatoor Group, which is, probably, of middle-cretace- 

 ous age ; any thing beyond this must be determined by other evidence. 

 These plant-beds were first noticed by Mr. Charles Oldham in the 



^. , .. , u ^r neighbourhood of Ootatoor, where the lowest beds 

 First noticed by Mr. 



Chas. Oldham. are well seen in a little ravine about a mile to the 



At Ootatoor. -r^ i_ i- j^i i i . i • 



h^ast 01 the bungalow. At this spot they are 



seen cropping out from beneath the soft yellow gypseous clays of the 

 Ootatoor Group, which, for some distance, form the left bank of the nul- 

 lah, while a thick greenstone dyke, against the denuded face of which 

 the latter were originally deposited, courses along the right bank. It is 



