6 
Plants were first obtained from associated beds by McKay(l) in 1878. The New 
Zealand Geological Survey collection, however, apparently contains only a very few 
fragmentary specimens from this locality. The material described here was collected 
from Tank Gully in November, 1911, by Mr. D. G. Lillie, of Cambridge, as the 
result of a journey to Mount Potts, in company with Mr. R. Speight, F.G.S., of 
Christchurch. 
Previous Records.- —Hector(2), in 1878 and in subsequent years, recorded “ Glosso- 
ptens augustifolia and Schizoneura sp.” from these beds, but no figures or descriptions 
of the specimens were ever published by him. 
Ettmgshausen(3), in 1887, recorded seven species of the genera Equisetum, Tcenio¬ 
pteris, Asplenium, Palissya, Baiera, Thinnfeldia, and Protocladus, six of which were 
new, but no figures or descriptions were given of any of them, and they remain 
mere nomina nuda. 
As stated in the previous chapter, in 1913(4) 1 figured the following plants collected 
by Mr. Lillie from Mount Potts. These are now in the British Museum (Natural 
History) :— 
Linguifolium Irillieanum sp. nov. 
Baiera cf. Baiera paucipartita Nath. 
Tceniopteris Daintreei McCoy. 
Chiropteris lacerata sp. nov. 
Thinnfeldia lancifolia (Morr.). 
For the sake of completeness, these specimens are refigured here, and a full 
description of them is also added. Two modifications have been made in the list 
of determinations, both the Baiera and the Tceniopteris being now regarded as new 
species, viz. :■— 
Baiera robusta sp. nov. 
Tceniopteris Thornsoniana sp. nov. 
Previous Opinions with regard to the Age of the Mount Potts Beds.- —The nature of 
the flora of the Mount Potts beds, and the question of its geological age, have- been 
the subjects of much controversy in New Zealand, particularly between Hector and 
Haast, and consequently considerable doubt has existed in Europe on these questions. 
The matter has been complicated by the fact that, sixteen years before the first plant- 
remains were discovered at Mount Potts, certain beds of mollusca, brachiopoda, and 
isolated saurian(?) bones were found in the same locality. Further, some fifteen 
miles distant, in the Clent Hills, plant-remains were also known, which Haast(5) 
regarded on stratigraphical evidence as occurring in beds of equivalent age to those 
bearing mollusca at Mount Potts, originally discovered by him in 1861. 
The marine fauna from Mount Potts and the plants from the Clent Hills had 
been submitted to McCoy, who pronounced the former to be Lower Carboniferous 
or Devonian, and the latter Jurassic in age(6). Haast, however, disagreed with the 
age assigned to the Clent Hill flora, and explicitly states that the same beds which 
contain the flora in the Clent Hills overlie the molluscan beds at Mount Potts. He 
adds(5), “ This is therefore good and, as I think, conclusive evidence that the Clent 
Hills and Malvern Hills plant-beds, notwithstanding they contain the remains of a 
plant closely allied to Tceniopteris, are nevertheless of great age, and, if we adopt 
(1) McKay (1878 1 ). (5) Haast (1877), p. 6. 
(2) Hector (1878 1 ), p. iv, and McKay (1878 1 ), (6) Hector (1877), p. v ; Haast (1877), p. 6 ; 
p. 106. and especially McCoy in Hector (1886 2 3 4 ), 
(3) Ettingshausen (1887), p. 147. p. xxi, footnote. 
(4) Arbor (1913'). 
