156 
The contributions to Victorian paheobotany, in which the floras are scien¬ 
tifically treated, are few in number, and we are les3 familiar with the past 
vegetation of that part of Australia than with the fossil plants of New South 
Wales and other regions. In his important account of Victorian plants, pub¬ 
lished in 1874 in the Prodromus of the Palceontology of Victoria , McCoy dedi¬ 
cated one of the species (Zamites Barklyi) to Sir Henry Barkly, formerly 
Governor of Victoria, in commemoration of the interest he took in “ one of 
the nicest and most difficult questions of critical paheobotany with which 
Australian geologists have had to deal.”* * * § This question of age as determined 
by plant evidence led to several controversial articles by McCoy, Clarke, and 
other writers. At a meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria, on 4th June, 
1860, Prof. McCoy “ brought forward a new species of Tceniopteris from the coal 
works of the Bass River in support of the oolitic age of certain Victorian coal 
strata. ”■(' The specimen was named Tceniopteris Daintreei , after the collector, 
and described as resembling T. vittata of Brongniart. At the next meeting of 
the Society, a communication was read from Mr. Clarke, in which he expressed 
scepticism as to the determination of the fern, and protested against the 
question of age being regarded as settled on the evidence of McCoy’s species. J 
To this McCoy replied ;§ but there is no need to follow the controversy further, 
except to note that in 1861 Clarke|| referred to McCoy’s Tceniopteris from 
Cape Paterson, in Victoria, and repeated his opinion as to the pakeozoic age 
of the rocks. McCoy^j adhered to his original view, which was apparently 
shared by Prof. Zigno.** * * §§ 
An examination of numerous specimens of T. Daintreei and associated 
plants from Victoria leads me to the conclusion that McCoy’s opinion as to the 
jurassic age of the flora is probably correct.*j**j* Among the plants sent to me 
for investigation, no specimens were met with which could be referred to any 
of the three species of Zjamites contained in McCoy’s list indeed, with the 
' exception of a single fragment of a frond which I have placed provisionally in 
the genus Nilssonia, no Cycads were recognised. 
An important work by Feistmantel, originally published in the Palceonto- 
graphica,§§ appeared as a translation in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of 
New South Wales in 1890.|||| In this memoir, jurassic plant-beds are mentioned 
from the following districts :—Coleraine, Cape Otway, Western Port, Cape 
Paterson, and Bellarine. Feistmantel correlates the Victorian strata with the 
Clarence River series of New South Wales. A note is added by Wilkinson in 
reference to Feistmantel’s statement to the effect that the Clarence River beds 
are overlain by rocks identical with the Hawkesbury series, which has been 
shown by animal evidence to be triassic, and it is suggested that the Victorian 
beds with Tceniopteris Daintreei and Alethopteris australis may also be triassic. 
* McCoy (74), p. 33. 
f McCoy (60) ; Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, V., p. x. 
| Clarke (60) ; Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, V., p. 89. 
§ McCoy (60) ; ibid., p. 96. 
{| Clarke (61) ; Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, VI., p. 32. 
McCoy (61) ; ibid., p. 42. 
** Zigno (60). 
tt See also Dun (98). 
tt McCoy (74). 
§§ Feistmantel (79). 
1111 Feistmantel (90). 
^| < j| Ibid., p. 41. 
