The higher division of the Australian Carboniferous usually spoken of as the Permo-carboniferous, and here designated the Carbopermian (see Footnote 2, page 48), is typified by a sudden accession of plant forms, chiefly belonging to ferns of the Glossopteris type. The lingulate or tongue-shaped fronds of this genus, with their characteristic reticulate venation, are often found entirely covering the slabs of shale intercalated with the coal seams of New South Wales; and it is also a common fossil in Tasmania and Western Australia. The allied form, Gangamopteris, which is distinguished from Glossopteris by having no definite midrib, is found in beds of the same age in Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania. These plant remains are also found in India, South Africa, South America and the Falkland Islands. This wide distribution of such ancient ferns indicates that those now isolated land-surfaces were once connected, forming an extensive continent named by Prof. Suess “Gondwana-Land,” from the Gondwana district in India ([Fig. 59]).
Triassic Plants.—
The widely distributed pinnate fern known as Thinnfeldia is first found in the Trias; in the Narrabeen shales near Manly, and the Hawksbury sandstone at Mount Victoria, New South Wales. It is also a common fossil of the Jurassic of South Gippsland, and other parts of Victoria. The grass-like leaves of Phoenicopsis are frequently met with in Triassic strata, as in the upper series at Bald Hill, Bacchus Marsh, and also in Tasmania. The large Banana-palm-like leaves of Taeniopteris (Macrotaeniopteris) are common to the Triassic and Lower Jurassic beds of India: they are also met with in New Zealand, and in the upper beds at Bald Hill, Bacchus Marsh.
A—Thinnfeldia odontopteroides. Morris sp. Trias. N.S. Wales.
B—Cladophlebis denticulata, Brongn. sp. var. australis, Morr. Jurassic, Victoria.
C—Taeniopteris spatulata, McClell. var. Daintreei, McCoy. Jurassic, Victoria.
D—Brachyphyllum gippslandicum, McCoy. Jurassic, Victoria.
E—Ginkgo robusta, McCoy. Jurassic, Victoria.