Chap. III.] sub-himalayan series — subathu group. 99 



Cyperaceje. — The natural family, Cyperacece, is represented by several specimens of 

 Cyperites ; some apparently identical with, or very closely allied to the species Deucalionis 

 of Heer, and others to the species Tenuistriatus of the same author. 



The genus Cyperus, the living representative of the fossil Cyperites, is essentially tropical. 

 Humboldt remarks that the character of sedges changes as we approach the equator, multi- 

 tudes of species of Cyperus usurping the place of arctic and temperate genera of the sedge 

 family. The habitat of the members of this family is various. Lindley says : — " They are to 

 be found in marshes, ditches, and running streams, in meadows and on heath, in groves and 

 forests, on the blowing sands of the sea-shore, on the tops of mountains, from the Arctic to the 

 Antarctic Circle, wherever phaenogamous vegetation can exist." Cyperites is such a genus 

 as we should expect to have preserved in a tropical fresh water deposit. Royle (Must., p. 415) 

 says : — " Cyperus inundatus, probably with other species, helps much to bind and protect the 

 banks of the Ganges from the rapidity of the stream, and the force of the tides ; as in Holland 

 Carex arenaria is carefully planted on the dykes, where its far-extending roots, by mutually 

 interlacing with each other, fix the sand, and give strength to the embankment." 

 Associated with these specimens of Cyperites some fragments of Carices also occur. 

 GkaminejE. — There are a few specimens of grasses in our collection, which might all be 

 referred to the genus Poacites. 



It may fairly be deduced from the facts here stated, that the climate and other exter nal 

 influences which prevailed during the deposition of these blue shaly clays of the Kasaoli 

 range were very much the same as those which obtain now in the locality whence these 

 vegetable remains have been derived. It has already been shown that these remains cannot 

 have been conveyed far from the places where they flourished as living organisms ; and we 

 may conclude, if we allow for the elevation which the Kasaoli beds, in common with the 

 whole mountain mass, have undergone, that the latitude in which the Kasaoli beds were 

 deposited, at the time of their deposition, was, as now, generally favorable to sub-tropical 

 forms of vegetable life. And that the relative disposition of sea and land in the Subathu 

 period was essentially the same as now, or at least that the lower zone of the Himalayas 

 was then, as now, open to the sea on the south, may, with much probability, be inferred from 

 the fact that the fossil plants which we have been noticing are such as, when alive, would 

 require constant accessions of moisture from sea-breezes. Judging from the great number 

 of genera which we have represented in this small collection, it is likely that the vegetation 

 of the Kasaoli period was rank and various. The presence of Cyperites and Carex suggests 

 that they flourished in the vicinity of a lake or river, and the special function which 

 Cyperus inundatus, — to which some of our specimens (Deucalionis) are allied, — at present 

 performs, in preserving the banks of the Ganges, countenances the hypothesis that these 

 Cyperites grew on the banks of the river, or a branch of it, which deposited the beds in 

 which they are now preserved. 

 Protozoa. 



Nummulites. Several species and numerous individuals Subathu. 



Cristellaria (?) Dundelee. 



Heterostegina ... Ditto. 



CCELENTERATA. 



Thecosmilia Subathu. 



