602 GEOLOGY. 



the North Atlantic, as shown by Heer, 1 and others. Species of Astro- 

 phyllites, Sphenopteris, Sphenophyllum, Lepidodendron, Stigmaria, and 

 Cordaites have been found in Spitzbergen, including the cosmopolitan 

 species Lepidodendron sternbergii and Cordaites borassifolius. Sphenop- 

 teris is reported from Melville Island in association with coal. A 

 very similar flora is found in the Coal Deposits of China, embracing 

 Callipteridium, Neuropteris, Palceopteris, Sphenopteris, Catamites, Spheno- 

 phyllum, Lepidodendron, and Cordaites. In southern Asia neither the 

 record nor its bearing is altogether clear. In the Salt Range in 

 northwestern India, the marine "Productus beds " contain some species 

 regarded as Carboniferous, commingled with others of more recent 

 aspect, while at its base are bowlder beds with glacial markings, imply- 

 ing conditions quite at variance with the warmth and uniformity 

 usually postulated for the Coal Measures period. In the center of the 

 peninsula of India, the Talchir formation contains both coal and gla- 

 cial beds, and is referred by authors with hesitation to the Upper Car- 

 boniferous and Permian. In Australia, the earliest coal-beds contain 

 Lepidodendron and Cordaites, but the chief coal-beds contain Glossop- 

 teris (a tongue-shaped fern) and its associates, to be described later. 

 Closely associated with these coal-beds are glacial beds also to be 

 described later. The Glossopteris flora characterizes all the plant- 

 beds that are later than the glacial beds. Species of Glossopteris seem 

 to have appeared before the formation of the glacial beds, and per- 

 haps as early as the Lower Carboniferous. In South Africa there 

 are beds containing Lepidodendron and other Carboniferous species, 

 overlain unconformably by the Dwyka Conglomerate, a part of which 

 is glacial, and above which the Glossopteris flora prevails. . 



Taking the phenomena of India, Australia, and South Africa 

 together, they make a puzzling combination. If the chief coal-beds 

 be referred to the Carboniferous proper, it introduces glacial beds, 

 and a great floral break, into the midst of a system which has usually 

 been held to be marked by great uniformity the world over. It is, 

 however, more probable that the glacial beds and all the formations 

 above them are to be referred to the Permian period, and this inter- 

 pretation will be followed in this work. Even when these extraordinary 

 formations are eliminated, it is not wholly clear that the flora of the 

 southern regions was very closely identical with that of the northern. 

 1 Flora Fossilis Arctica, IV, 1877. 



