Fossil Plants from the Bokkeveld and Witteberg Beds of South Africa

Abstract

I. I ntroduction N ine years ago Dr. S. H. Haughton of the Geological Survey of the Union of South Africa sent to me for description a collection of fossil plants from the Bokkeveld and Witteberg Series of the Cape Province. At my suggestion Mr. S. L. Ghose, who was then a Research Student of Selwyn College, examined the material and incorporated a preliminary account of it in an unpublished thesis. Subsequently, Dr. T. M. Harris made a careful examination of the fossils and it was our intention to publish a joint paper : unfortunately, pressure of other duties rendered this impossible. I am greatly indebted to both these gentlemen, but I must accept responsibility both for the delay and for the conclusions reached in the present communication. The specimens described in the following paper were obtained by Dr. Haughton from the upper part of the Bokkeveld Series at Schiet Kraal, Steytherville, in the south-central part of the Cape Province, about 80 miles north-west of Port Elizabeth, and from the Witteberg shales at Nourse Poort, Steytherville. One of the specimens (PI. XXIII, fig. 7) was found at a farm east of the Bezuidenhouts River, Uitenhage, in beds described by Dr. Haughton as the second shales of the Bokkeveld beds. In a letter written by Dr. Haughton (December 14th, 1922) he stated that the plant-bearing shales described as Upper Bokkeveld should be assigned, from a palaeontological view, to the Witteberg Series. He added that ‘ in the field there is no clear line