118 LOWER DEVONIAN PLANT REMAINS 
regarding the Yeringian shales and sandstones has been supported 
by the work of Gill (1942) on fossils in the shaley beds of the 
type Yeringian area. In his conclusion Gill wrote: “The age of 
the shales and sandstones is shown to be Devonian. In part at 
least these beds can be correlated with the Baton River (Lower 
Devonian) beds of New Zealand described by Shirley. The fauna 
reveals definite affinities with the European and North American 
Lower Devonian faunas.” 
It seems clear, therefore, that the small Yeringian flora from 
the Lilydale district which will now be considered can be definitely 
regarded as Lower Devonian. 
Most of the Yeringian plant remains were collected from a small 
cutting on Hull Road about 14 chains south of its junction with 
the main highway from Melbourne to Lilydale. The name that 
Gill (1940, p. 357) suggested should be used for this particular 
locality is “Hull Road, Lilydale.” Here the plant fossils occur 
together with well preserved animal remains in soft pink or white 
shales which underlie and are conformable with the Yeringian 
limestone (Lower Devonian) of Cave Hill. The specimens are 
either casts or flattened incrustations in which the original tissues 
are represented by small flakes of carbon or a brownish mineral 
substance. Such preservation, while quite adequate for sound 
general comparisons, limits the possibility of specific indenti- 
fication. The remains from this deposit are cf. Sporogonites, 
Zosterophyllum australianum, Yarravia cf. oblonga and Hedeia 
ef. corymbosa, and will be considered in that order. 
1. ef. Sporogonites 
Plate IV, Figs. 1 and 2. 
Several specimens were found at Hull Road which compare 
closely with Sporogonites (Halle 1916). Each consists of a slender 
stalk and a terminal capsule-like body. The appearance of the 
latter suggests that it was a spore-containing structure, but no 
trace of spores has been preserved on the flattened incrustations. 
The largest example, shown enlarged 10 diameters in Plate IV, 
Fig. 1, illustrates the general appearance of such specimens. The 
axis is unbranched, about 0-5 mm, wide, and broadens gradually 
into a club-shaped terminal capsule. This, including the widened 
part of the stalk, is 4 mm. long and 2 mm. broad, and narrows 
slightly towards the apex. A narrow peripheral zone represented 
by a solid cast of a brown mineral substance is marked off from 
the uniform central region of the capsule. 
A second specimen and its counterpart are represented at a 
magnification of 10 diameters in Plate IV, Figs. 2 and 3. The 
