636 Proceedings, 



Mr. Kirk spoke of the discovery as being of great interest, but was inclined to believe 

 the plant would prove identical with an Australian species, notwithstanding its larger 

 size. In other parts of New Zealand the natives had traditions that certain trees were 

 the paddles or canoe poles which had been fixed in the ground on landing, and had 

 taken root ; and as the genus Pomaderris was restricted to Australia and New Zealand, 

 he feared that we could not expect to find the plant discovered by Dr. Hector in other 

 countries. 



Mr. Buchanan thought that if the plant was a new species we were as much in the 

 dark as ever, and that if it proved to be identical with the Australian species, it would 

 upset many pet theories with respect to the " Whence of the Maori." 



9. " Notes on some New Zealand. Crustaceans," by T. W. Kirk, Assistant 

 in the Colonial Museum. {Transactions, p. 401.) 



10. " Description of a new Species of Celmisia,''' by J. Buchanan, F.L.S. 

 [Transactions, p. 427.) 



11. "On the Fossil Flora of New Zealand," by Dr. Hector, Director of 

 the Geological Survey. 



ABSTKACT. 



This paper gave a prodromus of a work on the fossil flora of New Zea- 

 land, containing descriptions and figures of about a hundred, species. The 

 earliest traces of plants found in the New Zealand rocks are in the upper 

 Silurian formation, but these and also the plant remains found in the 

 Devonian and lower Carboniferous strata are very obscure, and no structural 

 features have yet been identified. 



The earliest recognized forms are Glossopteris and Schizoneura, which 

 occur about the middle of the Kaihiku formation, overlying marine fossils 

 that have a mixed Carboniferous and Permian facies. 



In the Wairoa formation of Triassic age, fragmentary plant remains are 

 abundant. Dammara occurs, the wood having been identified from its 

 peculiar structure by Prof. Unger'^' ; also, fronds that are referred to — Zamites 

 and Neuropteris. 



The next horizon with plants is in the Flag Hill series, which is the 

 lower of the three divisions of the Jurassic, and the following forms indicate 

 an extension of the Indian flora of the same period far into southern 

 latitudes. Macrotcenopteris lata, Palceozamia mataiirienis, Oleandridum. vittatum, 

 var., Aletliopteris (two species), Pecopteris (three species), Neuropteris stricta, 

 Camptopteris novce-zealandia, Cycadites, and Echinostrohus. A closely- allied 

 flora to this re-appears in the Mataura series, which is the upper member 

 of the Jurassic formation. 



The Neocomian strata (or Amuri series) which are so rich in the remains 

 of fossil reptilia, are interesting from their affording the earliest specimens 

 of a true Dicotyledonous leaf, associated with the foliage of Dammara and 

 xiraucaria, 



* Hochstetter's New Zealand, p 57. 



