NO. 3.] INTRODUCTION. 



of the possibility of there being plant-bearing strata of Permian and Tertiary 

 age, besides the Jurassic ones. 



With regard to the supposed Permian fossils, they have been found at 

 Cook's Rock and Cape Stephen in coarse sandstone, abounding in remains of 

 plants. Newton mentions Phyllotheca cfr. columnaris, RMptozamites dr. 

 Qcepperti, Anomozamites ?, Zamiopteris cfr. glossopteroides Asplenium 

 cfr. wMfbiense. 



These plant-remains represented in pi. 41 accompanying the paper of 

 Newton and Teall, do not seem so well preserved that it is possible to identify 

 any of them with certainty, and it may be observed that the first and last spe- 

 cies in the list of fossils given above are Jurassic. There is nothing to prevent 

 the so-called Phyllotheca from being an Equisetum or Schizoneura, and 

 both BMptosamites and Zamiopteris are very doubtful, which is also the 

 case with Anomozamites (?). Of the so-called Asplenium cfr. whitbiense, 

 the most one can say is that it seems to be a fern of the Cladophlebis type. 



But though, in consequence, I cannot hazard any definite opinion con- 

 cerning this fossil flora, I must say that to me it seems, it might well 

 belong to the uppermost Trias or Rhaetic. In the summer of 1898 at Bell 

 Sound, Spitsbergen, a flora of this age was met with which was remarkable 

 for large leaves resembling those classed by Newton as Zamiopteris and 

 BMptosamites, although the venation of those leaves was too badly preserved 

 to allow my giving any definite opinion at present as to their generic 

 determination. This plant-bearing stratum is succeeded by the transgrading 

 marine Jurassic beds of Oxfordian age. I therefore do not consider it impossible 

 that the plant-bearing sandstone at Cook's Rock and Cape Stephen may belong 

 to the uppermost Trias, though more complete material is necessary before 

 the question can be decided with any certainty. 



With regard to the silicified slab found in the same locality, the leaves 

 of which resembled Baiera and Podozamites, as also the leaves of a Ginkgo, 

 I firmly believe that it is of Jurassic and not of Tertiary age. Similar Ginkgo 

 forms are also found in the Jurassic beds, and I possess a somewhat similar 

 specimen from King Charles Land. The coniferous twig on the same slab, 

 which is called by Newton Pinites, should rather be considered as a Pachy- 

 phyllum, or some allied genus. That the compressed vegetable remains from 



