85 
EQUISETACE® INCEST® SEDIS SYSTEMATIC®. 
Genus — SPHENOPHYLLUM, Brongniart. 
PL II, Fig. 8. 
Obs . — There is a fragment amongst the Australian fossils which I 
O O 
have referred to the genus Sphenophyllum, although I did not venture to 
determine it specifically. 
This genus is chiefly represented in the true Coal Measures of Europe 
and America; but there is also a Sphenophyllum antiquum, Dawson, from 
Upper Devonian strata at St. John, North America (placed hy Prof. ITeer 
with his Ursa horizon). There is a Sphenophyllum tenerrimum , Ettgh., from 
the Culm ; hut we know also a Sphenopliylluni from the Gas Coal, Bohemia, 
which, if not younger, is certainly uppermost Carboniferous, probably tran- 
sitional between Carboniferous and Permian. In India there is in the Damuda 
division of the Gondwana System, a plant, apparently equisetaceous, originally 
described as Trizygia spteciosa, Boyle, later called hy some authors Sphcno- 
phyllum trizygia, which probably represents the Carboniferous Sphenophyllum 
in the Damuda coal beds in India. 
The fragment from Australia shows, as far as I could observe, a portion 
of the stem with a joint and a leaf- whorl. The leaves are pretty large and 
distinctly cuneiform. 
Locality and Horizon . — Erom the Lower Carboniferous beds at Port 
Stephens, New South Wales. 
Genus — VERTEBRARIA, Hoyle, 1839. 
Yertebraria , Hoyle, Illustrat. Botany and Nat. Ilist. Him. Mts., 1839, p. XXIX*, PI. II, figs. 1-5. 
„ M‘Coy, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 18-17, Yol. XX, pp. 145-147, PI. IX, f. 1. 
Clastcria, Dana, Geology U. States Ex pi. Expd., 1849, PI. XI Y. 
Sphenophyllum, Unger, Gen. et Spec. Plant. Foss., 1850, p. 71. 
Vcrtebraria, Banbury, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 18G1, Yol. XVII, p. 338, PI. XI, f. 3. 
„ Feistmantel, Eaniganj Fossils (Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1S76, Yol. XLA r , p. 317). 
„ Feistmantel, Flora of the Damuda and Panehet Divisions (Gondwana Flora, 1880, 
Yol. Ill, Pt. 2, p. 71, &c., figs.) 
„ Feistmantel, Palaeontographica, loc. cit., 1S7S, p. 81, &c., figs. 
„ Tenison Woods, loc. cit., 1883, p. 75, ct seq. 
Obs . — This peculiar genus of fossil plants is hitherto known with 
certainty only from India and Australia, and in the latter country especially 
