Possible Angiosperms from Lower Permian Coal of the Transvaal

Abstract

THE accompanying photograph (Fig. 1), which is natural size, represents two out of five white concretions found recently embedded in bright bituminous coal in a pillar of the underground workings on No. C seam of the Breyten Colliery in the eastern Transvaal, South Africa. They have every appearance of being of organic origin and suggest the mineralization of angiospermous fruits of a type far more advanced than any yet contemplated in sediments of this age, namely, lower Permian. The coal seam, is horizontal and is the lowest exploitable one in the Coal Measures (Middle Ecca) of this area. Glossopteris leaves are known from overlying sediments. The rank of the coal is evident from, the photograph, and an age not less than lower Permian is supported by spore determinations.