COAL. 63
For
fuller accounts of the lithological characters and fossil contents of
the above beds I must refer the reader to Mr. Blanford's account of
them in the " Manual of the Geology of India."
The
groups of the Upper Gondwanas do not contain workable coal, but their
presence in the several fields covering and sometimes wholly concealing
the coal-measures confers on them indirectly a considerable economic
importance.
Age of the Plant-Bearing Series of Rocks included in the gondwana system.
I
have already given the proposed correlations of the several series or
groups of Gondwana rocks with European formations, but it may be well
to add a few general remarks on the subject.
Some of those now present who are readers of the Geological Magazine may,
perhaps, have scented the battle which has been waged afar off as to
the homo-taxy and correlation of these rocks with those of the
recognized European sequence.
Perhaps the most important recent result of the examination of the fossil plants has been the discovery that Glossopteris (a
genus of ferns), which was formerly thought to be characteristic of the
Lower Gondwanas, has been found to occur in the very highest group of
the Upper Gondwanas—viz., Jabalpurs. On the other hand, several species
of Cycadaceous plants, which order was supposed to be restricted
totheuppergroups, have been found to exist in the lower or Damuda
groups,* thus to a great extent binding the whole
* The Damuda Cycadaceous plants are—Noeggerathia His-lopi., Bunb., Macroptcryginm Comp. Bmani, Schimp., Ptero-phyllum Bicrd'djancnse,^'stm., Glossazamites Stoliczkanus, Fstm., ride " Records Geological Survey of India," vol. x. pt. 2.
