CHAPTER VIII. 
THE PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS. 
PERMO-CARBONIFEROUS — ORIGIN OF THE TERM— FORMA- 
TION OF COAL BUILDING UP OF THE COAL MEASURES 
FRESH- WATER AND MARINE CONDITIONS — VOLCANOES 
OF THE PERIOD — SUMMARY. 
The series of stratified rocks that underlies the 
Hawkesbury-Wianamatta, and contains the coal 
measures, is known as the Permo-Carboniferous. This 
term was originally proposed by Mr. Robert Etheridge, 
jun., for a formation “ distinguished by a copious 
marine fauna partaking of a Carboniferous and Per- 
mian nature, and a flora from which lycopodaceous 
plants are almost entirely absent.” Anyone familiar 
with the Carboniferous rocks of Europe will remember 
that the most characteristic fossil plant is Lepido- 
dendron. This is absent in the coal measures 
of Eastern Australia ; and in its place we 
find plants, and one fern in particular, with quite 
a Mesozoic aspect. The fern referred to is 
Glossopteris (Fig. 38). This beautiful plant abounds 
in the coal measures that underlie Sydney, and 
can be found plentifully at Newcastle or Lithgow. 
It will, of course, be remembered that the same 
coal measures that are depressed three thousand 
