536 



whole is about 2'5 cm. The cell detail of the specimen is not 

 well preserved, but the following details can be determined : — 

 In traiksverse section many cells have the lumen filled 

 with brown matter. Occasional irregular strands of paren- 

 chyma occur in the wood in places, but their nature could not 

 be determined. 



Growtli rings are present. 



Jiordered p/fs on the radial walls of the tracheids are 

 in two or more rows, alternate, compressed, and hexagonal. 



MclI nVUu'ii rays: simple, uniseriate, from one to eight cells 

 high. Radial sections show numerous small oval pits in the 

 field. Horizontal elements filled with dense dark-brown sub- 

 stance occur in association with the rays. 



Conclusion. 



It vrould appear that considerable Gymnosperm forests 

 have contributed to the formation of the brown coal deposits 

 of Moorlands, South Australia, and Yallourn, Victoria. Such 

 forests do not occur in South Australia or Victoria to-day 

 though there are occasional open forests of CaUitris; growing 

 under semi-arid conditions. No mixed Coniferous forests 

 exist in these parts, yet these must have given rise 

 to the Yallourn lignites which have yielded several distinct 

 types of Gymnosperms, namely, two species of Me^on- 

 hrio.ri/lon , one C upressinoxylon^ and one Dddoxylon ( ? ). 

 The Moorlands forests would appear to have been more uni- 

 form, so far as preservation of the wood allows one to say. In 

 view of the abundance of Dicotyledonous leaf fragments from 

 Moorlands, the scarcity of Dicotyledonous wood is strange. 



References. 



Broughton, a. C. — "Notes on the Geology of the Moorlands 



(S.A.) Brown Coal Deposits," Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austr., 



xlv., pp. 248-253, 1921. 

 Mawson, Sib D., and V. Chapman — 'The Tertiary Brown 



Coal-bearino- Beds of Moorlands," ihid., xlvi., pp. 



131-147, 1922. 

 Seward, A. C. — ''Fossil Plants," vol. iv., Cambridge, 1919. 

 Andrews, E. C. — "The Geological History of the Australian 



Flowering Plants," Am. Journ. Science, vol. xlii., pp. 



171-232, 1916. 



