The Flora

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Abstract
Plants are known only in the lower portion of the Basement Series, in a zone some 20 feet thick, which rests directly upon the Loams. But in this zone they are persistently present, and in some parts of it extremely abundant. A massive white sandstone, which has a range of more than a mile, is studded with carbonized fragments; but nearly all the determinable specimens were obtained from grey shales, which are often quite crowded with remains of slender plants. The richest of these shales are about 8 feet above the Loams, but others are only a few inches above barren yellow loam, the rapidity with which vegetable life appears being remarkable. [E. G.] Fig. 1 The following summary of the general characters of the flora is based on forty specimens:— In the grey shales are very numerous fragments of what are probably Stigmarian rootlets, one (Ar 531) showing the usual dichotomous forking of Stigmaria . In view of the absence of any direct evidence of Stigmarian axes, it would be unwise to state definitely that Stigmaria is present in these beds, although the presence of trees, in sandstones which are nearly on the same horizon and only a few yards away, make it highly probable. Lycopod megaspores are also fairly abundant in some of the samples of these shales, while the sandstones contain many large casts, one of which (Ar 593) was determinable as a Knorria -condition of ? Lepidodendron . Half embedded in a fragment of shale (Ar 530) some exceedingly
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