Download 475 of India, Glossopteris has been found in extraordinary abun

Palaeontologie.
475
of I n d i a , Glossopteris
has been found in extraordinary abun­
dance in the same company with which it occurs in A u s t r a ­
l i a . In S o u t h A f r i c a an identical flora is met with which
extends to the A r g e n t i n e and to other regions of S o u t h
America.
It is clear that
from S o u t h
America,
through S o u t h
A f r i c a and I n d i a to
Australia,
there existed a vegetation of uniform character which flouri­
shed over a vast southern continent at approximately the same
period as that which, in the northern hemisphere and in C h i n a ,
witnessed the growth of the forests whose trees formed the
source of our coal-supply.
In B r a z i l , Professor Z e i l l e r has recorded the occurrence
of a flora including Lepidophloios,
a well-known European
member of the Lycopods, associated with such characteristic
southern types as Gangamopteris
and Noeggerathlopsis.
Simi­
larly from the T r a n s v a a l a European species of
Sigillaria,
with a Lepidodendroid plant, and another northern genus,
Psygmophyllum,
have been found in beds containing
Glossop­
teris,
Gangamopteris,
Noeggerathiopsis,
Neuropteridium,
and
other members of the so-called Glossopteris
flora. In I n d i a ,
flora exhibits an entire absence of
Lepidodenthe Glossopteris
dron, Catamites,
Sigillaria,
and other common northern genera,
while Sphenophyllum
is represented by a single species.
The
Australian Permo-Carboniferous flora is also characterised by
the absence of the great majority of the northern types. Until
a few years ago the genus Glossopteris
had not been disco­
vered in E u r o p e , but in 1897 Professor A m a l i t z k y recorded
the occurrence of this genus in association with
Gangamopteris
in Permian strata in northern R u s s i a . We see, then, that in
B r a z i l and S o u t h A f r i c a the Glossopteris
flora and the
northern flora overlapped, but the former was the dominant
partner. On the other hand, in rocks belonging to a somewhat
higher horizon in R u s s i a , we meet with a northern extension
of the Glossopteris
flora.
There seems good reason for assuming that the
Glossopteris
flora originated in the South and before the close of the Permian
period, as well as in the succeeding Triassic era, pushed north­
ward over a portion of the area previously occupied by the
northern flora.
This northward extension is shown by the
existence of Glossopteris
in Upper Permian rocks of R u s s i a ,
by the occurrence of several southern types in plant-bearing
beds of the Altai mountains, and by the existence in W e s t e r n
E u r o p e during the early stages of the Triassic era of such
southern genera as Neuropteridium
and
Schizoneura.
T r i a s s i c , J u r a s s i c , and W e a l d e n
Floras.
One of the few floras of early Triassic age of which satis­
factory relics have been preserved is that from the Bunter
Sandstones of the Vosges. The genus Neuropteridium,
a plant
which may be a true fern, or possibly a surviving member of