396 Geological Society. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 315.] 

 February 6, 1867.— Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., 



President, in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 

 1. " On the Jurassic Fauna and Flora of South Africa." By 

 Ralph Tate, Esq., F.G.S. 



In this paper the author gave descriptions of the undescribed 

 fossils in the Society's Museum, obtained from the following 

 secondary deposits of Cape Colony, in ascending order ; — 



1. Karoo Beds. — These strata, containing Dicynodon and Iridina, 

 have yielded a flora which was stated to present close analogy with 

 the plants of the Coal-formation of Burdwan and Nagpur, India, 

 and the Newcastle Coal-field, New South Wales. The characteristic 

 plant in each of these deposits, and in the Karoo Beds, is a Glos- 

 sopteris. The author regarded the age of the Karoo Beds, from 

 their position and organic contents, as approximating to that of the 

 Trias ; and he described from them species of the following genera : 

 — Glossopteris, Phyllotheca, Dictyopteris, Rubidgea, n. g., and Ather- 

 stonea, n. g. 



2. Phytiferous Beds of Geelhoutboom. — The flora of this deposit is 

 characterized by the presence of Palceozamia, Arthrotaxites, Asple- 

 nites,Pecopteris,Sphenopteris, and Cyclopteris, several species of which 

 are comparable with certain others from the Oolitic series of Eu- 

 rope, and of the Rajraahal Hills, India. One species, Asplenites 

 lobata, Oldh., is common to South Africa and India. 



3. Marine Limestones, &c, of Port Elizabeth Province. — The 

 great mass of the fossils from this series are bivalves ; and the 

 extreme rarity of Cephalopoda, Polyzoa, Echinoderms, and Corals 

 was stated to call to mind the conditions of life which prevailed 

 during the deposition of the upper members of the Lower Oolites in 

 England. The generic grouping is such as occurs in the Jurassic 

 series ; and though no genus, represented in the South-African fauna, 

 is peculiar to the Jurassic rocks, yet the following give a marked 

 Oolitic faciestothem : — Belemnites (Canaliculati) , Actceonina, Alaria, 

 Neritopsis, Pleuromya, Placunopsis, Isastrcea, &c. Four species 

 were referred to European forms, viz. Trigonia Cassiope, d'Orb., 

 T. Goldfussi, Ag., Serpula filaria, and S. plicatilis ; but a very large 

 number of the African shells have their representatives in the Lower 

 and Middle Oolites of Europe, and their equivalents in India. 



2. " Further remarks upon the relation of the Chillesford Beds to 

 the Fluviomarine Crag." By the Rev. O. Fisher, M.A., F.G.S. 



The author dissented from the interpretation of two pit- sections, 

 one on Aldringham Common, the other near Henham Park Farm, 

 given by Mr. Searles Wood in his paper " On the structure of the 

 Red Crag." Mr. Fisher admitted that the former is at a higher 

 level than the Thorpe Crag-pit, and the latter than the Wangford 

 Crag ; but he denied that the loam on Aldringham Common is 

 Chillesford clay, and w r as doubtful whether even that at Henham 



