534 HENRY P. BLANF0ED ON THE 



The assumed return of warmth during Permian times, after a 

 general reduction of temperature, would be eminently favourable to 

 that extension of similar or nearly allied forms of life which we 

 have evidenced in the Australian, Indian, and South- African plant- 

 beds, provided the distribution of the land were such as to admit of 

 their diffusion, a subject which I shall discuss presently. The pre- 

 valence of a cold climate would also help to explain the comparative 

 absence of animal and vegetable life from the deposits of the Talchir 

 period — deposits which by their lithological character seem well fitted 

 to receive and preserve such remains. This Koonap group in South 

 Africa would seem to be equally deficient in fossil remains, these 

 beds in lat. 30° to 32° being the supposed representatives of our 

 Damuda series in lat. 17° to 23°, in which a flora abundant in 

 individuals, but poor in species, at that time flourished. With 

 regard to the Australian plant-beds I see no evidence to show whe- 

 ther they preceded or followed the glacial period. Australia may 

 have been the home in later Carboniferous times of a flora which 

 was afterwards driven towards the equator, and subsequently, on 

 the return of a genial climate, spread to Africa and India ; or since, 

 for aught we know, the marine forms Orthoceras, Eurydesma, Sjoirifer, 

 Conularia, and Fenestella, &c. may have been fitted to live in cold 

 seas ; the beds containing them may be in part of early Permian age : 

 this supposition gains some support from the lithological resemblance 

 of the rocks containing them to those of the Talchir group, a resem- 

 blance noticed by Dr. Oldham, and which implies some similarity of 

 physical conditions. On this supposition Glossojoteris, Phyllotheca, 

 &c. may have spread to Australia in Permian times, and the ex- 

 tinction of the preceding Devonian flora (Lepidodendron &c.) may 

 have occurred during the glacial period. Perhaps the extinction of the 

 Carboniferous flora of Europe may have been due to the same cause. 



On the review of all the probabilities (and partial probabilities are 

 the only guides we have), I am inclined, then, to relegate the lowest 

 groups of the Indian plant-bearing series to Permian times, and to 

 correlate them with the lower groups of the Karoo formation of 

 Africa and, possibly, the "Wollongong sandstones and Newcastle- 

 coal series of Australia. But I admit that the validity of this view 

 depends in a very great measure on that of my speculation that 

 there was a general decrease of temperature over the earth's surface 

 between the Carboniferous and Permian epochs ; and this must staud 

 or fall by the evidence of future investigation. 



The affinities between the fossils, both animals and plants, of the 

 Beaufort group of Africa and those of the Indian Panchets and 

 Kamthis are such as to suggest the former existence of a land con- 

 nexion between the two areas. But the resemblance of the African 

 and Indian fossil faunas does not cease with Permian and Triassic 

 times. The plant-beds of the Uitenhage group have furnished eleven 

 forms of plants, two of which Mr. Tate has identified with Indian 

 Eajmahal plants. The Indian Jurassic fossils have yet to be de- 

 scribed (with a few exceptions) ; but it has already been stated that 

 Dr. Stoliczka was much struck with the affinities of certain of the 



