FOSSILISED FLORA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24136, 1 December 1941, Page 6

FOSSILISED FLORA

PORT WAIKATO DISCOVERY Consisting of primitive fern, fernlike plants that bore seeds, and conebearing plants closely related to the kauri and Norfolk Island pine, samples of Jurassic period flora, the oldest known in New Zealand, and belonging to an age of more than a hundred million years ago, have been found at the South Waikato Heads by Dr. W. R. 13. Oliver, director of the Dominion Museum, and Professor J. A. iiartrum, professor of geology at the Auckland University College. The collection of this fossilised flora is of considerable geographical significance. Dr. Oliver and Professor Bartrum spent several days 011 the exploratory work. Some samples were obtained from two miles up the Waikato River, and others at Orouarangi, on the sea-coast six miles south of the heads. The beds from which they were taken are exposed to the sea, and the fossils were obtained by breaking up boulders lying on the beach. According to stratification, there are rocks in New Zealand older than those in which the ancient flora was found at Waikato Heads, but they are not fossil-bearing like these. While engaged in their activities on the coast, Dr. Oliver and Professor Bartrum found the site of an old mission, but practically all that remained were the chimneys. They were, however, interested in two large Moreton Bay fig trees, whose presence there suggested that tliey might have been planted by the early missionaries.