(_Nat. Mus. Coll._) ] =Devonian and Carboniferous Plants.--= [Illustration: =Fig. 58.--UPPER PALAEOZOIC PLANTS.= A--Rhacopteris inaequilatera, Göppert sp. Up. Carboniferous. Stroud, New South Wales. (_After Feistmantel_). B--Gangamopteris spatulata, McCoy. Carbopermian. Bacchus Marsh, Victoria.] Plant-life was not abundant, however, until Upper Devonian and Carboniferous times. In the rocks of these periods we meet with the large strap-shaped leaves of _Cordaites_ and a fern, _Sphenopteris_, in the first-named series; and the widely distributed _Lepidodendron_ with its handsome lozenge-scarred stems in the later series (Fig. 56). _Cordaites_ has been found in Victoria in the Iguana Creek beds (Upper Devonian), and it also probably occurs at the same horizon at Nungatta, New South Wales. _Lepidodendron_ occurs in the Lower Carboniferous sandstone of Victoria and Queensland (Fig. 57): in New South Wales it is found at Mt. Lambie, Goonoo, Tamworth and Copeland in beds generally regarded as Upper Devonian. Both of these plants are typical of Carboniferous (Coal Measure) beds in Europe and North America. The fern _Rhacopteris_ is characteristic of Upper Carboniferous shales and sandstones near Stroud, and other localities in New South Wales as well as in Queensland (Fig. 58). These beds yield a few inferior seams of coal. _Girvanella_ is again seen in the oolitic limestones of Carboniferous age in Queensland and New South Wales. =Carbopermian Plants.--= The higher division of the Australian Carboniferous usually spoken of as the Permo-carboniferous, and here designated the Carbopermian (see Footnote 2, page 48), is typified by a sudden accession of plant forms, chiefly belonging to ferns of the _Glossopteris_ type. The lingulate or tongue-shaped fronds of this genus, with their characteristic reticulate venation, are often found entirely covering the slabs of shale intercalated with the coal seams of New South Wales; and it is also a common fossil in Tasmania and Western Australia. The allied form, _Gangamopteris_, which is distinguished from _Glossopteris_ by having no definite midrib, is found in beds of the same age in Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania. These plant remains are also found in India, South Africa, South America and the Falkland Islands. This wide distribution of such ancient ferns indicates that those now isolated land-surfaces were once connected, forming an extensive continent named by Prof. Suess "Gondwana-Land," from the Gondwana district in India (Fig. 59). [Illustration: _E. M. del._ (_After J. W. Gregory_). =Fig. 59.--Map of the World in the Upper Carboniferous Era.= ] =Triassic Plants.--=