6 2 
Sedimentary Formations 
The object of the above references is to suggest, that Gloss- 
opteris is a member of a possible Permian outcrop, which has 
not been yet sufficiently searched for. 
However, the force of my argument depends on this —that 
it is^ unlikely that plants which occur in Carboniferous strata 
and in Triassic and Liassic beds (of which more hereafter) should 
be missing in Permian strata, could the latter be discovered. 
And this without prejudice to the fact that in other countries 
Triassic beds are found to surmount the Palaeozoic without the 
intervention of Permian. The latter was held in 1839-’40 by 
Professor Dana to represent the age of the New South Wales 
Coal-beds, and in his first publications on the subject up to 1849. 
In the First Edition of his “ Manual of Qeoloyj ” he recalled that 
opinion (p. 444), stating “ that in view of all the facts, it appears 
probable that the Coal-beds referred to, both in Asia and Aus¬ 
tralia^ represent the Triassic period.” But in the Second Edition 
of 1875, he says (p. 370) : The Coal formation of II la war ra and 
Hunter River, Australia, is probably Permian, as stated by the 
author in his notes on Australian Geology.” (“ Gcol. Rep. 
Wilkes's Ex pi. Expd .” 1849.) Thus ho returned like a true man 
to his “ first love.” But in the Eirst Edition he added : 41 In the 
Australian beds there are heterocercal ganoids, and hence the 
formation cannot be more recent than the Triassic,” (p. 411). He 
thus rejected all Oolitic or Jurassic tendencies, and at the same 
time intimated the existence of a “ Carboniferous” bora, saying: 
“Rev. W. B. Clarke reports true Lopidodendra from the interior 
of New South 'Wales—from which it appears that the Carbon¬ 
iferous flora is represented in Australia.” This conclusion lie 
also repeated in bis Second Edition, in these words : “It exists also 
and iucludes workable Coal-beds in China, India, and Australia; 
but part of the formation in these latter regions may prove to bo 
Permian,” (p. 345). * 
The occurreuco of species in the position assigned to those 
named above is acknowledged by geologists in other countries. 
Mr. Lesquereux thus alludes to them in one of his able special 
Reports, “ On the Fossil Plants of the Cretaceous and Tertiary 
formations of Kanzas and Nebraska.” Prelim. Rep. U. S. Gcol. 
Sur. of the Territories , conducted by E. V. Hayden, U. 8. Gcol.,” 
1870, p. 377.] “ Since the first appearance of laud vegetation 
upon the surface of our earth, what we know of it by fossil 
remains seems to indicate for our country a precedence in time 
in the development of botanical types. Largo trunks of 
* An excellent illustration of tho way in which the succession iu one 
country diverges from that in another, is given by Mons. do Saporta in a 
review of the “ Carboniferous Flora of the Department of the Loire and the 
Centre of France as described by Mons. Grand ’Eury, in “Bull, de la Soc . 
Gcol. de France t. 57, p. 3G7, read 19 March, 1877. 
