564 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



scribed in the work before us, are but few. They are referred 

 by Mr. Morris (who has assisted the author in this part of his 

 work) to three species of Sphenopteris, one Glossopteris, two 

 Pecopteris, one Zeugophyllites, and one Phyllotheca. 



" In reviewing the few species of the ancient flora that have been hitherto 

 collected from the carboniferous deposits of Australia, including therein the 

 fossil plants from the basin of the Hunter, in New South Wales, and those from 

 the Jerusalem basin, in Van Diemen's Land, we at once perceive the interesting 

 fact, that although limited as the species are in number, there is no trace of any 

 of those remarkable genera so characteristic of, and so abundant in, the strata of 

 the European and American coal-fields, such as Lepidode?idron, Sigillaria, Stig- 

 maria, Calamites, or Coniferce* 



" The basins themselves, if indeed contemporaneous, appear to be character- 

 ised by a distinctly localised flora ; no species, as far at least as our observations 

 have extended, being found common to the two deposits. The basin of the 

 Hunter contains Phyllotheca australis, Glossopteris Browniana, and some other 

 species; in that of Jerusalem, in Van Diemen's Land, are found three or four 

 species belonging to the genera Sphenopteris and Pecopteris, and one to Zeugo- 

 phyllites, these being associated with some large fragments of stems, too imperfect 

 to be defined. 



" In comparing, therefore, the whole of the species at present known, from 

 these deposits, with the coal plants of Europe, there appears, indeed, to be but 

 few, if any, analogical forms, although the equisetoid-looking Phyllotheca may 

 probably be considered as the representative of the Calamites of the northern 

 deposits ; while, on the other hand, its congener, the Glossopteris Browniana, 

 is a fern so entirely different from any of those that are found in the carboni- 

 ferous periods of the northern hemisphere. 



" Among the fossil plants collected from the Jerusalem basin, we find the 

 interesting genus Zeugophyllites, and certain forms of Pecopteris, one of which is 

 closely allied to an oolitic species, and another having strong resemblances to an 

 Odontopteris from the Permian system of Russia. 



" These few observations partly lead us to infer that the flora of the southern 

 hemisphere was perfectly distinct in its facies from the northern, at the carboni- 

 ferous period ; just as, at the present time, the modern flora of the same con- 

 tinent presents a striking difference to that of other portions of the globe ; and 

 this appears to be the more remarkable, as the species constituting the fauna of 

 the Australian ocean, anterior to that period, contain many forms which, if not 

 perfectly identical, are at least the representative ones of those of the northern 

 region. 



" In instituting a comparison between the species collected from the Austra- 

 lian deposits, and those described from the Burdwan coal-field by Professor 

 Royle, we observe both the remarkable analogy of form of some species and 

 the actual identity of others; from which we may probably be led to infer that 

 the deposition of the strata containing them was not only contemporaneous, but 

 that the conditions of the flora of some portions of the Indian and Australian 

 continents, at that epoch, were not very dissimilar. In the Burdwan coal-field 

 we find the Pecopteris Lindley ana, Glossopteris danceo'ides, G. Browniana, and other 

 plants associated with two species of a very curious form, Vertebraria indica and 

 V. radiata. The Australian deposit also contains Glossopteris Browniana, two or 

 three species of Sphenopteris, and the same species of Vertebraria above noticed. 

 The Pecopteris australis of the Jerusalem basin is closely allied to, if not iden- 

 tical with, the P. Lindley ana from Burdwan. The Glossopteris danceo'ides of the 

 Burdwan deposit apparently belongs to the genus Taeniopteris, the veins being 

 perfectly horizontal, and not anastomosed, as in the typical species of Glossopteris. 

 We have previously remarked upon the absence of certain carboniferous forms 

 in these deposits ; on the other hand, if we compare some of the species with 

 certain others, from the oolitic series of England, a striking analogy of form is 

 at once perceptible ; the Pecopteris Murrayana, P. Whitbiensis, and Glossopteris 

 Phillipsii representing as it were the Pecopteris ( Sphenopteris') alata, P. australis, 

 and Glossopteris Browniana of the Australian strata." 



