On a Collection of Carboniferous Plants from Peru

Abstract

In the course of a geological expedition to Peru in 1911 Mr. J. A. Douglas collected some fossil plants from coal-bearing strata on the south side of the peninsula of Paracas, a few miles south of the port of Pisco (lat. 13° 45′ S.). The plants, which are the property of the Geological Department of Oxford University, were handed to me for identification by Mr. Douglas, who also supplied information on the geology of the district. The specimens, though fragmentary and few in number, are worth recording, since this is the only known occurrence of fossiliferous Palæozoic rocks on the coast of Peru. Moreover, from a phytogeographical point of view, any fossil plants from South America are worthy of attention. The coal occurs in a series of greenish sandstones and grey and black carbonaceous shales, which have a north-easterly strike and dip about 25° south-eastwards. These are overlain unconformably on the neck of the peninsula by Tertiary sandstones and impure limestones. There is no definite stratigraphical evidence of the age of the coal-bearing beds, and the plants are therefore of special importance: in other districts the strata which are the chief source of Peruvian coal are Mesozoic in age. Mr. Douglas informed me that the rocks in question were described by Friedrich Fuchs, who published a note on them in 1900 in the ‘Boletin de Minas’ (Lima). Fuchs recorded the following species, and assigned the beds to the Upper Coal Measures:— Calamites Suckowi Brongniart. C. Sphenopteris Hartlebeni Dunker. W. Baiera