﻿1861.] 



BUNBUBY FOSSIL PLANTS, NAGPTIR. 



343 



anthes tenuifolia, and Gleichenia Hermanni. When, therefore, the 

 climatic or local conditions were such that the mass of the vegetation 

 consisted of Ferns, we need not be surprised to find a much greater 

 agreement than now exists between the two countries. 



3. Next, as to the geological indications afforded by these Nagpur 

 plants. Messrs. Hislop and Hunter consider the age of this deposit as 

 Oolitic (Jurassic) ; McCoy inclines to the same conclusion with regard 

 to the coal of New South Wales ; and De Zigno, in his writings on 

 the fossil flora of the Oolite, has without hesitation included under 

 that category the coal-formations of both India and Australia. On 

 the other hand, Prof. Jukes (as quoted by Dr. Hooker*) seems to hold 

 that the coal-formation of Australia is palaeozoic. It is very diffi- 

 cult, looking to the points of agreement I have already enumerated, 

 to believe that the Indian and Australian fossil floras f were far 

 removed in time. If the resemblances between them are not worthy 

 of confidence, still less then can we trust to the analogies of either 

 with those of Europe. 



The fossil flora of Nagpur is certainly in its general aspect more 

 like that of the Jurassic than of the Carboniferous age. I do not 

 find in it, however, any plant which I can determine to be specifically 

 identical with one belonging to the European Oolite. The Tcenio- 

 pteris (T. danceoides?) from Nagpur is not, perhaps, «atisfactorily 

 distinct from T. major of the Yorkshire Oolite ; but our materials 

 do not allow us to identify it with that species. The genus Glosso- 

 pteris, so especially characteristic of the Indian and Australian plant- 

 beds, contributes much to give to those formations a mesozoic rather 

 than palaeozoic aspect, since it is perhaps, as a genus, undistinguish- 

 able from Sagenopteris, of the Oolite and Keuper, while, on the 

 other hand, it has little resemblance to any Ferns of the Carboniferous 

 age. Nevertheless, a certain degree of caution must be observed in 

 concluding that particular genera of Ferns are absolutely charac- 

 teristic of particular geological periods. It has been remarked $ 

 that there is a certain analogy or proportion between the geo- 

 graphical and the geological distribution of organized beings. Now 

 there are very few instances in which the genera of recent Ferns 

 have a strictly limited geographical area : scarcely any genus 

 (excepting those which consist of only one or two species) is 

 confined to a single geographical province or region §. Yery many 

 even of the species of Ferns (as has been amply shown by Sir W. 

 Hooker and by Dr. Joseph Hooker) have a wide geographical range. 

 With the genera this holds good in the majority of cases ; and the in- 

 stances are numberless in which we find nearly allied or representa- 

 tive species in distant countries. It appears therefore to a certain 



* Introductory Essay on Flora of Australia, p. 100, 101. 



t By the Indian fossil flora in this memoir I always mean that of the sup- 

 posed Jurassic beds of Nagpur, of the Rajmahal Hills, and of the Burdwan 

 coal-field. By the Australian fossil flora, I mean that of the coal-formation of 

 New South Wales. 



\ By Edward Forbes and others, 



§ See-what is said on this point by Mr. Jolm Smith, Hooker's Journal of Botany, 

 vol iv. 



