CHAPTBE XXIX. 
THE TRIAS-.TURA continued. 
THE IPSWICH EOEMATIOS (UPPER TRIAS-JURA); ITS AOE AND RELATIONS. 
In his Paper “On the G-eology of Queensland,” read in 1872 before the Ocological Society 
of London,* * * § the late Mr. Richard Haintree insisted on the importance of the two ferns 
Glossopteris and Tasniopteris as characteristic, the former of the Palaeozoic, and the 
latter of the Mesozoic Coal Deposits. Tho late Rev. J ulian E. Teuison Woods, in his 
“ Eossil Flora of the Coal Deposits of Australia ” (p.H), remarked that “ the selecRon of 
Tceniapteris is unfortunate, because it is not common,‘f' and probably included distinct 
genera, according to tho classification then adopted. ThinnfeJdia is a much bettor 
typical fos.sil of the Mesozoic Beds, and it is never found associated with Glossopteris. It 
is very common and prevails everywhere in Oolitic plant-beds. ”J On the ground that 
Tceniopteris was common to them all, Mr. Daintree regarded the Ipswich Coal Forma- 
tion as the equivalent of “ tho Tseniopteris Coal Measure.s of Victoria and of the 
Richmond River, X.S.W.” To Daintree Mr. Tenison Woods {loc. cfL) assigns “ the 
credit of co-relating the Jerusalem (Tasmanian) Beds with those of Ipswich, but I 
cannot find any warrant for this in Daiiitree’s Paper itself. 
Mr. Tenison Woods, at one time,§ classed tho Ipswich Coal Measures as 
Jurassic, and placed the Desert Sandstone on the same horizon. This view as to the 
position of the Desert Sandstone never was entertained by any other Geologist, 
and is obviouslv incorrect, when it is considered that that formation actually overlies 
unconformably the Rolling Downs Formation, which is itself newer than the Ipswich 
Formation. It was abandoned by Mr. Tenison Woods himself in his latest account of 
the Desert Sandstone || in favour of an idea not less untenable viz., that it [fjj® 
Desert Sandstone] probably belongs to the two groat volcanic periods of Tertiary age. 
Mr. Woods further placed on the same horizon as the Ipswich Beds the Clarence 
River Reds, and the Hawke.sbury Sandstone of New South Wales. The Ipswich Beds 
cross the border into New South Wales, where they are known as the “ Clarence Series.” 
The latter contains, according to tho late Mr Charles S. Wilkinson, Government Geologist 
of New South Wales, no Glosso2)feris, but Tccniopteris Daintreei, Aletliopteris 
australis, and Thiiinfeldia, and may be newer than the Wianamatta Beds, and of fte 
same age (Jurassic) as the Victorian Coal Series of which Tminopteris Daintreei is 
a characteristic fossil.lf Mr. Wilkinson’s observations ** maybe quoted to show the 
distinction between the Hawkesbury and Wianamatta Beds. 
“ The surface of the Haw'kesbury formation was denuded and w'orn into hollows 
before the Wianamatta beds were deposited; and the latter in their lithological 
* Quart. Jonrn. Geol. Soc., 1872, Vol. xxviii., !>. 288. ^ ^ 
+ Several sections of Tceniapteris are very common indeed in many localities within the ipswnen 
and Stewart’s Creek (Rockhampton) areas. (R. Ji. Juiir.) 
t The value of Temiopteris, u-sing the genua in the widest acceptance of the term, as marking tne 
presence of Mesozoic Beds as against those of Permo-Carboniferous age, holds now as good as when 
Mr. Daintree wrote. In Queensland Temiopteris has not yet been found lower than the Bunum t&tyxj 
Coal Measures. Junr.) 
§ Flora, pp. 18 and 19. 
II Jonrn. R. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1888, xxii., p. 200. 
Tl Notes on the Geology of New South Wales, 1882, p. 55. 
** Loc. cit., 11 . 54. 
