PALAEONTOLOGICAL BULLETIN No. 6. 
THE EARLIER MESOZOIC FLORAS 
OF 
NEW ZEALAND. 
CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTION. 
This memoir is concerned with an account of the earlier Mesozoic floras of New 
Zealand. A large number of specimens from different localities in these islands are 
discussed. The geological ages of the rocks in which they occur vary from Triasso- 
Rhsetic to Neocomian. The plant-impressions belong, for the most part, to the collec¬ 
tions of the Geological Survey of New Zealand, of which the best examples have been 
forwarded to me for examination and description. Others, including recent collections 
from the Malvern Hills and Gore districts, are now in the Sedgwick Museum, Cam¬ 
bridge. A further set of fossils, to which reference is also made, is in the British 
Museum (Natural History) as the result of an exchange effected between that insti¬ 
tution and the New Zealand Geological Survey in 1878. 
The majority of the specimens have not been previously described. In fact, as 
will be seen from the next section of this memoir, very little has hitherto been 
attempted in regard to the fossil floras of New Zealand, other than those of the 
Tertiary rocks. 
One result of the present work has been to show that Palaeozoic plants are quite 
unknown from New Zealand. The many rumours of the presence of Glossopteris- 
bearing rocks in these islands have proved to be without foundation. 
The fossil floras discussed here appear to be chiefly of Triasso-Rhsetic or Jurassic 
age, several examples occurring in different regions. A very interesting Neocomian 
flora is described, in which the Neophytic Angiospermous types are apparently still 
few as compared with the Mesophytic species. For the valuable description of the 
Angiospermous remains included here, I am greatly indebted to my friend Dr. L. 
Laurent, of Marsei les. 
Several new genera and species are instituted. These are indicated in Chapter III, 
where the flora of each locality is discussed separately. A full description of these 
plants will be found in Chapter VI, which contains an account of all the plants 
examined, arranged botanically, and irrespective of their geological ages. 
1—Mes. Floras. 
