Canterbury and Westland. 291 



CHAPTEE IX. 



The Waipaea Foemation. 



In the preceding notes on the " General Geological Structure of 

 the Province," I have already given some details on the origin of this 

 important formation, which although not of great horizontal extent, is 

 nevertheless of considerable interest, both from a scientific and 

 economic point of view. It was named the "Waipara formation in 

 1866 by Professor von Hochstetter, the valley of that river being the 

 principal locality in which the remains of numerous huge saurians 

 were found, and placed by him at the same time in the Jurassic group. 

 However, when examining these beds more closely in the Waipara and 

 Malvern Hills districts, and collecting their numerous fossil contents, 

 I found that the impressions of plants in the lowest series consisted of 

 dicotyledonous leaves, of which the following species are well repre- 

 sented : — Fay us ninnisiana, Phyllites eucalyptroides, Lorantliopliyllum 

 dubium, Griselinia myrtifolium, and several others described by 

 Unger from specimens collected by von Hochstetter in Auckland 

 and Nelson, and considered by both authorities as indicating a true 

 tertiary age. I also obtained remains of some conifers, amongst them 

 the impression of a large araucarian cone and twigs, belonging without 

 doubt to that division of pines which at present are still inhabitants of 

 Australia, besides leaves and twigs of a dammara, resembling in many 

 respects the kauri of the Northern islands. On the "West Coast, on 

 the other hand, although most of the plant impressions are dicoty- 

 ledonous leaves, many of them are different from those found on the 



