208 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



1. " On a Collection of Fossil Plants from the Nagpur Territory, Central 

 India." By Sir. C. Bunbury, Bart, F.R.S., F.G.S, &c. 



The specimens examined by the author were collected by the Hey. Messrs. 

 S. Hislop and R. Hunter, and presented to the Geological Society in 1854, and 

 since. The vegetable remains described in this paper are . — i. Glossopteris 

 Browniana, var. Australasica, Ad. Brong. Yery few specimens from Bharat- 

 waria, and at the foot of the Mahadewa Hills. G. Browniana, var. Indica, Ad. 

 Brong. By much the most abundant plant in the collection, with many sub- 

 varieties ; specimens very fine, many of them in fructification. Silewav/a. 2. 

 G. muscefoMa, sp. nov. Silewa6?a and Kampti. 3. G. leptoneura, sp. n. Kampti. • 

 4. G. stricta, sp. n. Silewa^a and Kampti. 5. JPecopteris, sp. somewhat re- 

 sembling P. Plukenetii. Kampti. 6. Cladophlebis (?), Kampti. 7, Tamiopteris, 

 danceoides, M'Clelland (?), Kampti. 8. Filiates : possibly a Glossopteris. 

 Silewa^a. 9. Filicites : possibly a Glossopteris. Kampti. 10. Nceggerathia (?). 

 Bhratawa^a. 11. Thyllotheca Indica, sp. n. Bharatwa6?a, Bokara, Kampti, 

 Silewa^a, and Barkoi. 12. Vertebraria (?). Different from the true Verte- 

 braria, and probably roots. Tonkaheiri, Kampti, Barkoi, and Mahadewa Hills. 

 13. Knorria (?). Mangali. 14. Stigmaria (?) : perhaps the rhizome of a fern. 

 Mangali. 15. Part of a stem, somewhat SigiHarian in appearance. Silewa^a. 

 16. Part of a large stem with a scar. Silewa^a. 17. Yuccites (?). Kampti. 

 The fruits and seeds are reserved for further examination. On a general survey 

 of all these plant-remains, the author for the present considers the fades of the 

 fossil flora under notice to be Mesozoic rather than Palaeozoic, but he regards 

 the question as an open one, and requiring much further light for its perfect 

 elucidation. 



2. " On the Age of the Possiliferous thin-bedded Sandstones and Coal-beds 

 of the Province of Nagpur, Central India." By the Rev. Stephen Hislop. 

 Communicated by the President. 



The author first pointed out the places near the city of Nagpur where the 

 plant-bearing sandstone has been best studied (Silewar/a, Kampti, Bokhara, 

 Tondakheiri, &c.) ; also other places as far distant as twenty miles west, thirty- 

 five miles north-east, and eighty-five miles south (Chanda. He next noticed 

 the carbonaceous shales underlying thick sandstones, at the foot of the Maha- 

 dewa Hills, and the coal-seams of Barkoi, near Umret, eighty miles and more 

 north-west of Nagpur ; and pointed out their relationship to the plant-bearing 

 sandstone near Nagpur, as shown by the Glossopteris, and other fossils found 

 in each locality. Reference was then made to the author having previously 

 correlated the above-mentioned sandstones, shales, and coal, with the coai- 

 bcaring-beds of Western Bengal, where the same group of fossil plants are 

 found. 



At Mangali, between fifty and sixty miles south of Nagpur, dark red sand- 

 stones are found, rich with Estheria, and containing remains of plants, Ganoid 

 Fishes, and Reptiles {Bracliyops laticeps, Owen). These beds Mr. Hislop 

 thinks to be of the same age as those of Nagpur and Chanda. Still further 

 south (one hundred and seventy miles from Nagpur), at Kota, there are (under 

 thick sandgtones) limestones and shales, containing fishes of the genera, 

 Mcfmo&us and Lepidotus, Teleosaurian remains, Coprolites, fossil Insects, 

 Cyprida, and Estheria, with obscure plant-remains. These beds are also re- 

 garded by the author as equivalent in age to the plant -bearing sandstones of 

 Nagpur ; whilst the sandstones above them may be equal to the sandstone of 

 the Maliadewas ; and the red clay beneath them may be the same as that of 

 Maledi, thirty miles off (to the north-east), where Ceratodus teeth and Copro- 

 lites have been found in abundance. 



Whether any beds equivalent to the Rajmahal (upper Damuda) series of 

 Western Bengal occur in the Nagpur district, the author is not quite certain 



