155 
ON A COLLECTION OF JURASSIC PLANTS FROM VICTORIA. 
(By A. C. Seward , F.R.S., University Lecturer in Botany , and 
Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.) 
A. Introduction. D. Explanation of figures. 
B. Description of fossils. E. Bibliography. 
C. Conclusion. 
A.—INTRODUCTORY. 
The occurrence of fossil plants in Australia has been well known since 
early in the nineteenth century, but we are still in want of an exhaustive 
illustrated account of the palaeozoic and mesozoic floras of the Australian 
continent. As the present paper deals solely with plants of mesozoic age, 
there is no need to enter into a general consideration of the older vegetation, 
which does not immediately concern us in the discussion of the younger floras. 
It is generally recognised that there is a very close agreement between the 
older coal vegetation of Australia and plants from India and South Africa 
which occur in beds usually spoken of as permo-carboniferous ; and more 
recently additional information has been obtained from South America as to 
the occurrence in that region of the same facies of palaeozoic vegetation as 
characterized the Southern Continent of Gondwana Land. Less attention 
has, however, been given to the description and correlation of the floras of 
mesozoic age from Australia and South Africa, in which the fern Glossopteris, 
the dominant type in the older vegetation, is either barely represented or 
entirely absent. It is true that Feistmantel’s memoirs have made us familiar 
with numerous mesozoic plants from the Upper Gondwana beds of India, 
but further information is needed before we can form a clear idea of the plant- 
geography and botanical features of India, South Africa, South America, 
Australia, and other southern regions during the mesozoic era. 
The most striking impression received from a recent examination of Aus¬ 
tralian and South African plants is the close resemblance presented by certain 
of the mesozoic floras of those regions to well-known European types. 
The specimens described in the present contribution to mesozoic botany, 
which were sent to me from the Department of Mines and Water Supply, 
Victoria, at the suggestion of Professor J. W. Gregory, were collected from 
the two coal-fields of South Gippsland and Otway. 
The South Gippsland coal-field is situated east of Western Port, and com¬ 
prises the following among other localities from which plants were obtained :—■ 
Kilcunda district (collected by W. H. Ferguson) ; Kongwak (collected by 
A. E. Kitson) ; Jumbunna East (collected by A. E. Kitson) ; Outtrim 
(collected by A. E. Kitson); and Welshpool (collected by A. E. Kitson). 
The Otway beds occur to the south-west of Port Phillip ; the plants were 
obtained from a small area in the neighbourhood of Apollo Bay by the late 
V. R. Stirling. 
In the following account of the material, a botanical arrangement has 
been followed, and a list of localities is appended to the description of the 
several species. 
