STRATIGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE YANG-TZI PROVINCE. 283 
On the whole, the paleobotanical data in hand from the K’ui-chéu 
basin can not at present be regarded as offering any significant evidence 
of Paleozoic age, either through direct connection with the Northern 
Permian flora, or indirectly through a relationship with the Paleozoic 
Gondwana floras. On the contrary, the connection with the Mesozoic, 
including the Upper Gondwana, plant life is direct and evident, though 
possibly less intimate than with that of the older Mesozoic of Europe and 
eastern Asia. We are therefore, I believe, compelled to regard the K’ui- 
chéu plant-bearing beds as Mesozoic; and, since the known species appear 
to be most closely bound to the Rhetic flora, as probably Upper Triassic. 
At the present moment the comparative distributional facts tend only to 
confirm the opinion long ago entertained by Newberry. The paleobotan- 
ical materials, though unfortunately meager in amount and deficient in 
species, demand that, for the present at least, the phytiferous portion of 
the K’ui-chéu series be considered as Triassic if not actually Rhetic. 
Commenting on the apparent contradiction of evidence brought out 
in the reports of Girty and White, it is desirable to emphasize the fact 
that the molluscan fauna of Permian aspect is stratigraphically lower than 
the flora of Triassic character. Occurring at the base of a massive marine 
limestone over 100 feet, 30 meters, thick, the former is separated from 
the higher coal-bearing phytiferous beds, not only by most of the limestone, 
but also by several hundred feet of sandstone and shale. We do not 
know exactly where the plants were collected, and have no detailed section 
of the K’ui-chéu series in the type locality. We feel justified, therefore, 
in accepting the opinion of Girty, and also that of White, and calling the 
K’ui-chéu series Permo-Mesozoic. 
