OP CENTRAL INDIA AND BENGAL. 327 



Glossopteris so markedly absent from the upper group, and so universally 

 present in this series, are all prominent and easily recognized distinctions. 

 To these we may add the presence, locally very abundant, of beautiful 

 specimens of the curious genus Schizoneura. 



The total and marked difference in the two floras being thus establish- 

 ed, we have yet to see to what epoch in the established system of Geolo- 

 gical groups, these rocks probably belong. To this end, we shall com- 

 pare in a little more detail some of the fossils. 



The genus Schizoneura of which we have abundant representatives 

 belonging to certainly two, perhaps more, species, has hitherto only been 

 found in the Triassic rocks of Europe. It was established from some 

 fossils from the Vosges sandstone.(«) The Zeugophyllites given by 

 Brongniart, as occurring in the Indian coal group (Prod. 11 8-121 ) and 

 specimens of which were figured by Strzelechi from Australia (b), appear 

 to be nothing more than a group of the leaflets, or a portion of the leaf 

 of Schizoneura.(c) 



Vertebraria has never hitherto been found, excepting in India and in 

 Australia. In both these countries it is remarkably abundant. The 

 species or varieties in both are also identical. I cannot agree with some 

 recent authors in referring this curious fossil plant to the genus Spheno- 

 phyllum. After a careful examination of hundreds of specimens I can 



figured in this series of plates are now in the collection of the Government Geological Muse- 

 um, Calcutta, with the exception of this one : and I cannot help thinking that a fragment of a 

 Schizoneura has, in this case, been mistaken for a Zamia. Certain it is, that we have 

 never been fortunate enough to meet with a single specimen of any Cycadeous plants in 

 these beds. I am disposed, therefore, to reject the evidence of this figure, unsupported by 

 any specimen. 



(a) Schimper et Mougeot. Plantes fossiles du gres bigarre de la chaine des Vosges. 

 Leipzig 1844, 



(6) Strzelechi, Physical description of New South Wales, &c. Lond. 1845. 



(c) The plant figured in the Trans. Geol. Soc. London second series Vol. VII, PL 

 XXVIII, fig. 1, appears to me to be a true Schizoneura, preserved on a plane at right 

 angles to the axis of the stem, or nearly so, and shewing two of the amplexicaul leaves, 

 or groups of leaves, pressed together in the rock. It is from the Dicynodon strata of 

 South Africa. 



