Jurassic Plants.—
The Jurassic flora of Australasia is very prolific in plant forms. These range from liverworts and horse-tails to ferns and conifers. The commonest ferns were Cladophlebis, Sphenopteris, Thinnfeldia and Taeniopteris. The conifers are represented by Araucarites (cone-scales, leaves and fruits), Palissya and Brachyphyllum ([Fig. 60]). The Ginkgo or Maiden-hair tree, which is still living in China and Japan, and also as a cultivated plant, was extremely abundant in Jurassic times, accompanied by the related genus, Baiera, having more deeply incised leaves; both genera occur in the Jurassic of S. Gippsland, Victoria, and in Queensland. The Jurassic flora of Australasia is in many respects like that of the Yorkshire coast near Scarborough. In New Zealand this flora is represented in the Mataura series, in which there are many forms identical with those of the Australian Jurassic, and even of India.
Cretaceous Plants.—
An upper Cretaceous fern, (?) Didymosorus gleichenioides, is found in the sandstones of the Croydon Gold-field, North Queensland.
Plants of the Cainozoic.—Balcombian Stage.—
The older part of the Cainozoic series in Australasia may be referred to the Oligocene. These are marine beds with occasional, thick seams of lignite, and sometimes of pipe-clay with leaves, the evidence of river influence in the immediate neighbourhood. The fossil wood in the lignite beds appears to be a Cupressinoxylon or Cypress wood. Leaves referable to plants living at the present day are also found in certain clays, as at Mornington, containing Eucalyptus precoriacea and a species of Podocarpus.
A—Cinnamomum polymorphoides, McCoy. Cainozoic. Victoria.
B—Laurus werribeensis, McCoy. Cainozoic. Victoria.
C—Banksia Campbelli, Ettingsh. Cainozoic. Vegetable Creek, N.S.W.
D—Fagus Risdoniana, Ettingsh. Cainozoic. Tasmania.
E—Spondylostrobus Smythi, Mueller. Cainozoic. (Deep Leads), Victoria.
Miocene Leaf-beds.—Janjukian Stage.—