Fossil Plants of the Mount Potts Beds, Neiv Zealand. 345 



we are obviously face to face with a conclusion of the greatest geological 

 importance. This is one of the questions which Mr. Lillie has set himself 

 the task of solving.* 



Plant-remains in the Mount Potts beds were first discovered by A. McKayf 

 in 1878. The collection was examined by Hector* in the same year, and he 

 stated that it contained examples of Glossopteris and Schizoneura, this 

 assertion being repeated in 1886. These conclusions subsequently led to 

 considerable controversy between Hector, Haast, McCoy, and others, the 

 details of which it is unnecessary to enter into here. The whole question 

 has turned on the identification of the fossils, and the evidence as to their 

 stratigraphical position. Further, until Mr. Lillie's visit, the collections 

 from this region appear to have been small and very fragmentary, and even 

 these had not been examined at any time by European specialists in 

 paleobotany. 



The fine collections made, in November, 1911, by Mr. Lillie, in conjunction 

 with Mr. Pi. Speight of Canterbury College, in very wild and difficult country, 

 appear, however, to settle this question once and for all. Glossopteris itself is 

 not present, nor is the flora a typical Glossopteris flora. 



The most characteristic and striking plant represented is, however, one 

 which resembles Glossopteris in habit. It has the same tongue-shaped, entire 

 frond, with a well-marked midrib, but the lateral nerves, instead of anasto- 

 mosing as in Glossopteris, do not unite with one another.^ (Plate 7, 

 figs. 1 and 4.) One member of this genus has already been described from 

 the Ehsetic beds of Chili. The specimens in question were termed Lesleya 

 Steinmanni.\\ It seems to me very doubtful whether these leaves belong to 

 the Paleozoic genus Lesleya. I should be inclined to place the Xew Zealand 



* This paper was written before the news of the sad disaster to the Polar party 

 of the Expedition reached this country. It is, however, only fair to the memory of the 

 late Capt. Scott, whose death I deplore most sincerely, to point out that the work which 

 Mr. Lillie and others have been engaged in, during the winter months in Xew Zealand, 

 was part and parcel of the scientific intention of his expedition, to be fulfilled during 

 the times when the " Terra Nova " would be useless in the Antarctic, but could be 

 profitably employed in Xew Zealand waters. 



t McKay, 1 Eep. Geol. Explor. Geol. Surv. N.Z.,' 1878, pp. 91-109. 



+ Hector, ' Proc. N.Z. Inst.,' 1878, vol. 10, p. 533. and ' Cat. N.Z. Court, Indian and 

 Colonial Exhibition, London,' 1886, p. 77. 



§ As will be seen from the upper part of the photograph on Plate 7, fig. 1, there 

 appear to be at least some anastomoses, but I am convinced that, in this as in other 

 cases, these are false and not real, and that they are due either to the partial removal of 

 the film of carbon, or to the fact that the normal distribution of the nervation had 

 become disturbed just before or during preservation. Such false anastomoses are by no 

 means infrequently met with among fossil impressions. 



|| Solms, ' Neues Jahrb.,' 1899, vol. 12, Beil. Bd., p. 596, Plate XIII, figs. 5-7. 



