﻿Vol. 64.] PERM0-CARB0NIFEE0T7S PLANTS FROM YEEEENIGING. 109 



6. Permo-Carboniferotjs Plants from Vereeniging (Transvaal). 

 By Albert Charles Seward, M.A., P.E.S., F.L.S., P.G.S., 

 Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, and 

 Thomas Nicholas Leslie, F.G.S. (Head I^ovember 6th, 1907.) 



[Plates IX & X.] 



Contents. 



Page 



I. Inti'oduction 109 



II. Descriptiou of the Specimens 113 



III. Condusion 122 



IV. Bibliography 123 



I. Inteodtjction. 



The township of Yereeniging, on the northern bank of the Vaal 

 Biver, close to its junction with the Klip Eiver, is situated on the 

 southern boundary of the Transvaal Colony, rather more than 40 

 miles south of Johannesburg on the railway which runs to Bloem- 

 fontein and Naauw Port. Geologically, Yereeniging is important 

 as the locality from which the greater number of Palaeozoic South 

 African plants have been obtained ; the species hitherto described 

 are frequently cited by authors — not always with the same con- 

 clusions — in reference to the geological age of the strata in this 

 part of the Transvaal. 



The large striated boulders weathered out of the surrounding 

 matrix on the bank of the Yaal River afford a striking demonstra- 

 tion of the nature of the Glacial Conglomerate, the term advocated 

 by Mr. E. T. Mellor^ in preference to that of the Dwyka. We are 

 not concerned with the precise method of formation of the con- 

 glomerate, but we are convinced that Sutherland was correct in his 

 opinion, expressed more than 40 years ago, that the boulder-beds 

 owe their origin to the action of ice, and this (we believe) is the 

 view of those geologists who have had an opportunity of examining 

 the evidence at first hand. The conglomerate, as shown in the 

 accompanying section (fig. 1, p. 110), is succeeded by coal-seams, 

 sandstones, and shales ; it is mainly from the sandstones that the 

 plants have been obtained. Most of the specimens were found in 

 a sandstone-quarry a mile and a half from Yereeniging,^ on the 

 banks of the Klip River about 1 mile from its confluence with 

 the Yaal : others were collected from a sandstone-bar which crosses 

 the Yaal channel a mile and a half west of Yereeniging. 



In 1897 Mr. D. Draper, who sent to one of us for description a 

 few plants from a quarry 2 miles east of Yereeniging, contributed 

 a paper in which he assigned a Triassic age to the coal-bearing 



^ Mellor (04) p. 21. The numerals in parentheses after authors' names 

 refer to the dates of publication ; see Bibliography, p. 123. 

 2 Leslie (04) p. 85. 



