﻿Vol. 64.] PEKMO-CAEBONIFEEOUS PLANTS FROM VEREENIGIXG. Ill 



the Ecca and interbedded with the Dwyka Series ; they are sepa- 

 rated from the underlying Potchefstroom Series by an unconformity. 

 The sandstone plant- hearing beds are thus classed by this author 

 as Lower Karroo, a view shared by Dr. Corstorphine/ who holds 

 that the Yereeniging beds are equivalent to the Lower Carbo- 

 niferous in other parts of the world. This view has been expressed 

 also by Dr. Molengraaff ^ and by Mr. Dunn.'' 



On the other hand, Mr. Mellor (loc.jam cit.) thinks that the 

 Yereeniging beds should be classed with the Beaufort Series of 

 Cape Colony (Middle Karroo) rather than with the Ecca Series 

 (Lower Karroo). This author writes — 



'The uncertainty attaching to the evidence of fossil plants could not be 

 better shown than by the somewhat remarkable fact that the supporters both 

 of the Ecca and of the Beaufort correlation claim that the palaeontological 

 evidence is in their favour.' (C^;*, cit. p. 100.) 



We admit the impossibility of using certain fossil plants as 

 determining evidence in deciding between a Lower and an Upper 

 Karroo horizon, but the fact that the pala^botanical records are 

 appealed to by supporters of diiferent views does not necessarily 

 render such records valueless. It must be remembered that the 

 number of plant-species so far obtained from Yereeniging is small^ 

 and allowance must also be made for the possibility of error in 

 dealing with a flora some members of which are common to both 

 divisions of the Karroo System. We admit the danger of dogma- 

 tizing on insufficient data, but we venture to dissent from the 

 opinion that the fossils favour the inclusion of the Yereeniging 

 strata in the Middle Karroo rather than in the Ecca Series. The 

 question of correlation of the Transvaal rocks with European 

 equivalents is dealt with later ; it is, however, impossible to apply^ 

 with any degree of confidence, the same nomenclature to the 

 divisions of the rocks of Gondwanaland as we find convenient in 

 the Northern Hemisphere. 



Although the records of fossil plants from the continent of Africa 

 are unfortunately scanty, they point to one conclusion of great 

 interest : the species obtained from Cape Colony, the Transvaal, 

 Zululand, and E-hodesia are for the most part members of the 

 widely-spread flora of Permo-Carboniferous age which has left 

 remnants in India, South America, and Australia ; while from the 

 coalfield of Tete on the Zambesi in Portuguese East Africa, in 

 latitude 16° S., several species have been described which point to 

 the existence in that region of the Stephanian flora of Europe — 

 the Upper Coal-Measures of British geologists. Representatives 

 of the following genera were recorded in 1883 by Prof. Zeiller^ 



^ Corstorphine (04) pp. 174-75. 

 2 Molengraaff (04) ; quoted by MeUor (06) p. 99. 

 ^ Dunn (98). 



* Zeiller (83) pp. 594-95. For references to records of the Glossopfcris-^oni. 

 in Africa, see Arber (05*) Bibliography, p. 227. 



