142 PROCEEDIN'GS' OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 6, 



specific title. The shales with Phyllotheca are dark-grey, somewhat 

 calcareous, and associated with a band of obscure Bivalves (iridince ?). 



b. General RemarTcs on tlie Fossil Plants of the Karoo Beds. 



1. A marked feature in the ancient flora of the Karoo district is 

 the paucity of specific forms (five in number), in proportion to the 

 abundance of specimens (forty in the Collection). 



2. This fiora presents close analogy with that of the Coal-forma- 

 tion of Eastern Australia and the plant-bearing beds of Burdwan 

 and IS'agpur in India. The characteristic plant in each of these 

 deposits and in the Karoo beds is a Glossojpteris ; and it seems that 

 the Indian, Australian, and South- African plants are specifically 

 ideutical. 



The association of the genera Glossopteris, Phyllotheca, and Dic^ 

 tyopteris(?) affords some evidence of Mesozoic affinities in this 

 fossil flora. 



3. From the very characteristic Jurassic flora presented by the 

 Geelhoutboom shales and limestones (which, from the structure of 

 the country, may be confidently regarded as being higher in the 

 geological scale), the fiora of the Karoo beds (which has no af&nity 

 with the former) cannot be regarded as contemporaneous with the 

 Jurassic fiora of Europe ; but, as it possesses a Mesozoic facies, it 

 may be considered to be of Triassic age. 



4. The nature of the flora conspires with the fauna to establish 

 the lacustrine origin of the Karoo series. The following synopsis 

 (by Prof. EuPEET Jones) of these beds and their vertebrate and other 

 fossils (as far as hitherto described) embraces the characteristics of 

 this remarkable formation. 



c. Synopsis of the Karoo Beds, 

 The Karoo Beds*, as far as described by the late Mr. Bain, appear 

 to comprise (beginning with the lowest) : — 



1. The Ecca Beds. Hard blue shales (with Plant-remains re- 

 sembling those of the still higher Beaufort Beds) alternating with 

 variegated and rippled sandstones, and containing some thin layers 

 of hard, blue, impure, nodular limestone. They are divisible into 

 an Upper and a Lower series f, separated by, and lying conform- 

 able with, the remarkable band of igneous rockit which extends 

 across South Africa. In the lower portion of the Ecca Beds Mr. 

 Bain noticed a band of vegetable remains 9 inches thick (at Ecca 

 Heights). The fossil wood on the Pattates River, in the Great 

 Karoo, belongs to the Ecca Zone. 



2. The Koonap Beds. Sandstones and hard shales, with fossil 

 trees at the Kleine Roggeveld. 



'^ Mr. Bain referred to these as the "Karoo Formations" in the East. Prov. 

 Magaz. 1856, p. 19. 



t Dr. Eubidge seems to regard this lower band, underlying the great trap- 

 breccia, as being probably a part of the Devonian series of strata. 



:j: On the flanks of the Zuui'bei'g it is decidedly a dolerite, containing angular 

 and rounded fragments of quartzite and granite. This trap-breccia and the 

 Ecca beds have participated in the foldings by which the quartzites and schists 

 (Devonian) of the Zuurberg have been raised into a ridge. 



