354 O. Feistmantel — Contributions towards the [Xo. 4, 



Of these last I mention here only the order Gleicheniaceae, which is 

 represented in the Rajmahal Hills. 



Of these orders, I, III, IV, and V, are represented frequently enough 

 amongst our Raniganj fossils, if we consider that the mezozoic epoch as a 

 whole, especially the Trias, was rather poor in ferns, much poorer than the 

 palaeozoic epoch ; we see, in Europe, that in the Trias, in comparison with 

 the Permian and Carboniferous rocks, the forms are rather rarely represented. 

 And so it is in India ; and I think this circumstance, that is to say, the 

 poverty in variety of forms, together with the very frequent occurrence of 

 the genus Schizoneura and such characteristic fossils as a single pinnate 

 Neuropteris (which is a Triassic type), the genus Voltzia with 2 species, 

 Albert ia, etc., can he used with far greater effect to bring our Darnuda flora 

 into contrast with the palaeozoic flora, than the rarity of Cycads can to 

 indicate a break between the lower and upper portion of the Gondwana 

 system, both of which are closely allied by the mezozoic habitus of the 

 flora in general. 



In Australia the lower coal-measures with prevailing carboniferous 

 marine animals must be taken as of that age, although some plants occur, 

 which become more developed in the upper coal-measures, where only a 

 flora is found which is not contrary to the supposition of a mezozoic age, 

 although it cannot he well compared with our Damuda flora. 



When I said that orders I, III, IV, and V, are especially represented 

 amongst our ferns, I should have explained that these are only palaeontolo- 

 gical orders, which, however, are as well founded on certain characters as 

 the living ones. 



Botanists, it is well known, use the fructification, besides the venation, 

 as a chief character in establishing their orders and genera. The former, 

 however, being rarely found in fossil plants, the palaeobotanist is obliged 

 to use other constant characters, of which the venation and the shape of 

 the leaf stand in the first place, and hence it is that in the same fossil genus 

 (for instance, JPecopteris), we may find represented several living genera, 

 which, however, cannot always be recognised, as only in a minority of 

 specimens is the fructification preserved, while the typical venation of the 

 genus Pecopteris will always be found indicated. The same we find 

 amongst the Taeniopterides, Dictyopterides, etc. 



Mr. Ettingshausen* published in 1865 a valuable work on living ferns, 

 which is written for the special purpose of showing to what living types 

 fossil ferns can be referred or which living forms are analogues of the 

 fossil ones. In the present paper I shall have occasion to refer several 

 times to this work. 



* Die Farrenkranter der Jetzwelt etc. nach. dem Flachenskelet bearbeitet ; Wien 

 1865, 



