12 
I therefore propose to proceed in the following order : I shall at first 
analyse the geological and palaeontological relations in the various Provinces 
of Eastern Australia according to the existing literature ; I shall compare 
them with each other, and shall enumerate the fossils according to the 
horizons and localities. Then will follow the description, in systematic 
order, and, at last, analogous Floras in other countries will he noticed and 
brought into comparison with those of Australia. 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 
The geological relations of this Province appear to be best known, 
and from, here also the fossils of the coal beds were first described. The 
various papers on the geological and palaeontological relations of New South 
Wales are rather numerous, and I shall therefore discuss the most important 
of them, just to show what views about the age of the coal-bearing rocks in 
Now South Wales were held by the various authors, and to be aide to deduce 
therefrom the general sequence of geological strata in that country, and to 
arrive also at a thorough knowledge of the fossils described from the coal- 
bearing and related beds. 
Literary Review. 
(1.) 1828. Brongniart (Alex.) Prodrome d’une Histoire des Vegetaux fossiles. 8 vo. Paris, 
1828. (i’P- 151 and 175). 
Describes Phyllotheca australis, and mentions Glossoptcris from Aus- 
tralia (N. S. Wales). The locality for Phyllotheca was vaguely given thus: 
“ Hawkesbury Diver, near Port Jackson, New South Wales.” No horizon 
is, however, mentioned from which the fossil came. 
(2.) 1828. Brongniart (Alex.) Histoire des Vegetaux fossiles. 2 r oh. Uo. Paris, 1828. 
Here Glossopteris Broicniana var. australasica is at first described 
(p. 223, PI. LXII, Pig. 1), but as coming from the coal formation in New 
South Wales. 
(3.) 1836. Goppert (Prof H. R.) Systema Filicum Fossilium. Glosscpieris is described and 
figured. 
(4.) 1845. Strzelecki (Count P. de.) Physical Description of New South Wales and Van 
Diemen’s Land, &C. 8to. London, 1845. 
This was about the first attempt at a systematic classification of the 
rocks by their fossils. Strzelecki, however, classed the formations, which lie. 
