Radiocarbon Dating and Pollen Analyses from Otiran Periglacial Fans in Western Wellington

Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand : Earth Sciences, Volume 7, Issue 11, 15 July 1970, Page 197

Radiocarbon Dating and Pollen Analyses from Otiran Periglacial Fans in Western Wellington

C. A. Fleming

By

N.Z. Geological Survey (with Appendices by D. J. Mclntyre and C. R. Lennie)

[Received by the Editor, 22 April 1969.]

Abstract

Fans fringing many steep slopes of western Wellington are constructional landforms built under periglacial conditions; they link the mantling solifluxion deposits of the hills with the aggraded terraces of the valleys. The Matenga Fanglomerate, composing such fans in the Paraparaumu-Waikanae district, falls stratigraphically in the Last (Otira) Glaciation. Carbonaceous silt interbedded in the upper part of the fanglomerate in the Lindale section, near Paraparaumu, has yielded pollen that indicates a surrounding vegetation of periglacial grassland, a fluctuation to dominant silver beech (Nothofagus menziesii) (cool-wet climate), and a subsequent return to periglacial grassland. A radiocarbon date from the Lindale section shows that fan formation was well advanced before 19,200 years B.P. and continued for some time afterwards. The greater part of the Matenga Fanglomerate is correlated with the Takapu Stadial, of Porirua, contemporary with the Kumara 2 Ice Advance of Westland. The climate amelioration and return of beech forest, represented by carbonaceous silt about 19,200 years old, is tentatively correlated with the interval between the last two ice advances of the Otiran. At least locally, therefore, fan-building apparently continued with only minor interruption during the last two Otiran advances.

Introduction

In several parts of the Wellington district alluvial fans, with their apices at minor stream valleys, are conspicuous landforms. At the foot of many steep greywacke slopes, formed either by valley erosion, by faulting, or by marine cliffing, such fans constitute a piedmont apron of greywacke debris, sloping steeply for several hundred feet from the hills to the adjacent lowlands. Examples of such fans may be seen at the foot of the Wellington Fault Scarp, west of Tinakori Stream (well exposed in the Harriet Street-Grant Road cutting), in the middle part of the Pukerua Corridor (Cotton, 1957) on Goroglen Station, in Valley Road east of Paraparaumu, overlying the marine sediments on the inter-glacial bench at Tongue Point, and especially at the foot of the old sea cliffs on the landward margin of the coastal lowland of western Wellington from Paekakariki north to Te Horo (PI. 1, Fig. 1). In this latter district the fans were described and illustrated by Cotton (1918). They are also briefly referred to in a popular article by the present writer (Fleming, 1961) which lists the sequence of Quaternary formations near Waikanae.

Lithology

The fans are largely built of angular, crudely bedded greywacke—argillite fanglomerate, poorly sorted and generally mixed with a considerable amount of finegrained material of sand and silt grade. In exposures the fanglomerates are seen to be irregularly bedded in layers a few inches to a few feet thick, distinguished by the different maximum size of the component argillite and greywacke fragments, with bedding approximately parallel to the surface of the fan. Locally, thin beds of silt are interbedded with the fanglomerate layers. The separate layers of fanglomerate and silt generally interfinger and die out laterally within a chain or so. At least in the uppermost 10ft the fanglomerates and interbedded silts are generally weathered to a rusty-brown colour.

Some fan surfaces are overlain by several feet of loess, but others have a scattering of subangular greywacke boulders, evidently modern slope deposits from the hills behind. Before European settlement their soils supported rich coastal forest, which persists, for instance, at Highway 1, a mile north of Paraparaumu, above the Lindale Section described below (PI. 1, Fig. 2), but are now mainly in pasture, and fans immediately north of Waikanae River, on the Hemi Matenga estate, have recently been subdivided for residential purposes.

In lithology and in weathering the materials of the west Wellington fans closely resemble the solifluxion debris described by Cotton and Te Punga (1955), Brodie (1957), and Stevens (1957) as mantling and gully-filling deposits on the Wellington hills. The lack of sorting, angularity of included fragments, and persistence of angular friable argillite fragments are compatible with origin in periglacial conditions, such as are indicated by the pollen assemblages from their silt members (see below). The silt beds are presumably loess trapped in moist depressions temporarily free from active fan deposition.

The periglacial fan sediments stand in strong contrast with the well-sorted sands and well-rounded gravels of the interglacial beach and dune deposits that preceded them (Otaki Formation) and of the beach, dune, and river deposits that followed in the Holocene. The fans may therefore be tentatively considered to be constructional periglacial landforms contemporary in their origin with degradation of adjacent hills by solifluxion and with the terrace-making aggradation in nearby rivers, although local evidence of the climate during such aggradation has not yet been found. They resemble the “stratified screes” described by Soons (1962) from Canterbury, but differ in their gentler slopes (10° compared with 30°), coarser materials, and somewhat better bedding, differences perhaps resulting from greater precipitation in western Wellington.

Stratigraphic Relations

Not all the fans of Wellington district are of the same geological age. Some appear to be at least as old as the penultimate glaciation, since they are truncated by a sea cliff of interglacial age. Minor fans have been deposited on the postglacial deposits of the coastal plain and are thus Holocene. But the majority of the conspicuous fans which retain their original constructional form (although dissected by the modern streams and thus no longer actively growing) probably date from the same chapter in Pleistocene history, as indicated by their stratigraphic relations at Waikanae and by the radiocarbon date here reported.

The fanglomerates of the Te Horo-Paraparaumu district, of which the conspicuous piedmont fans fringing the coastal hills (PI. 1, Fig. 1) are composed, are a distinctive mappable unit for which the name Matenga Fanglomerate is here proposed. The name is taken from the type locality, the Hemi Matenga Estate, Waikanae (N 157, grid reference 607722), where fanglomerate is well exposed in road cuttings. The formation is of very variable thickness, up to about 60ft, as proved by wells.

Two miles south of Te Horo in a section described by Te Punga (1962), and also in G. M. Port’s well, Waikanae, the Matenga Fanglomerate, constituting the material of conspicuous fans, overlies the Otaki Sandstone, which is interbedded with lignite radiocarbon dated as > 45,000 years (NZ6S, Fergusson and Rafter, 1957: 745), a sequence the writer has attributed to the Last Interglacial (Fleming, 1961). The clear stratigraphic relationship makes untenable the suggestion of Adkin (1951: 173) that the “conspicuous fans fringing the foothills between Te Horo and Waikanae ” are coeval with his Ohau Gravels, underlying the Otaki Sandstone. At Waikanae, the fans slope accordantly to the surface of a conspicuous terrace similar in its morphology and gravels to the Ohakea Terrace of Rangitikei Valley, for which Cowie and Wellman (1962) have argued a Last Glaciation age. The larger the feeding valley the gentler is the slope of its fan and the more rounded are its gravels, so that some examples (e.g., that illustrated by Cotton, 1918, fig. 4) are intermediate between fans and terraces.

The postglacial sea cliff described by Te Punga (1962), formed shortly before 5,140 years B.P. (Fleming, 1966), truncates the Matenga Fanglomerate (and older formations) between Te Horo and Waikanae. This relationship (Fig. 1) thus suggests a Last Glacial (Otiran) age for the Matenga Fanglomerate. The postglacial (Holocene) deposits overlying the coastal plain, namely the Foxton Dunesand (Cowie, 1963) and the Paraparaumu Peat 1 , lap against the Pleistocene formations on the west and locally overlie them.

Carbonaceous Silts

The superficial layers of Matenga Fanglomerate are usually weathered to a warm rusty-brown colour. In such weathered sections the silty bands lack any carbon-

aceous material, but some show small indistinct impressions of plant fragments on freshly broken faces. Road cuttings and ditches locally penetrate below the superficial zone of weathering to expose unweathered purplish-grey or black carbonaceous silts which have yielded abundant pollen grains, seeds, insect fragments, and material for radiocarbon analysis.

The most important carbonaceous silt sequence was first collected in February 1961 on Main Highway No. 1, at grid reference 559683 on Mosaic sheet N157/7, half a mile north of the Paraparaumu railway overbridge (Fig. 2), shortly after the highway had been realigned, widened and lowered. The exposure (PI. 1, Fig. 2) is east of the road, at the base of a low cutting showing the sequence of beds illustrated in Fig. 3 and in PI. 2. The section lies at approximately 50ft above sea level. For convenience of reference, it is here named the Lindale section from Mr H. B. G. Hadfield’s station of that name, which occupies the hills to the east of the locality.

The paleontological samples (N157/520) examined by Mr D, J, Mclntyre (Appendix I) and Mr C. R. Lennie (Appendix II) came from fifteen inches of more or less carbonaceous sediment at the base of the cutting (Fig. 3; PI. 2, Fig, 2).

Unfortunately the bedding is so irregular, and the section was so frequently obscured by small slips, that it proved difficult to re-collect the same horizons with confidence on successive visits. In particular, the Nothofagus menziesii horizon was not re-col-lected on the second and third samplings. Interpretation is therefore subject to minor uncertainties in detail.

The first suite collected for pollen analysis (L 2387-90) showed a clear sequence of conditions from cold grass-dominated open country to cool, wet forest (or scrub), with strongly dominant silver beech ( Nothofagus menziesii ) represented by a single sample (L 2388), and a return above to open grassland.

The grassland at the base of the sequence, with accompanying low shrubs and herbs, represents open country above the local timber line at the time of deposition, growing in conditions compatible with the periglacial environment suggested by the growth of the fan of angular ill-sorted rock-fragments with which the carbonaceous beds are interbedded. The presence of rare forest-tree pollen grains suggests that some forest existed on the exposed floor of Cook Strait to the west (windward) of the site.

Warming climate allowed woody vegetation, consisting almost entirely of the silver beech, to colonise the area for a short period represented by sample L 2388. The short-lived nature of this afforestation is indicated by the writer’s failure to relocate the horizon in later samplings. Although conditions were warmer than those that preceded and followed, a forest in which silver beech is dominant to the virtual exclusion of other trees suggests a wet climate considerably colder than at present and more comparable with that of the Upper Cold Temperate Belt of the northern Tararua Range near the present bush line (Zotov, Elder, et al., 1938). Close to the beech horizon a re-collection (L 3320) showed a dominance of Leptospermum ericoides. This species ranges to montane (but not subalpine) habitats according

to Allan (1961); it therefore seems reasonable to class L 3320 as part of the same warming as L 2388.

After a seemingly brief period when silver beech, as scrub or forest, clothed the surrounding hills, this woody vegetation gave way to open grassland interspersed with scrub and herbs; the fact that the latter included Ur tic a (growing near the site of deposition) would seem to preclude a fully subalpine environment, since Urtica is not recorded in subalpine localities (Allan, 1961).

The seeds identified by Mr G. R. Lennie (Appendix II) doubtless came from plants growing close to the site of deposition. The species identified in most samples are plants of wet open areas and do not include any distinctively subalpine types (such as Astelia linearis Hook., which is known from other low-altitude cold floras in Wellington). One sample (8840, from Bed 4) lacks some of the species common in most of the series, and includes seeds of a “ bush-lawyer ” {Rubus) , a genus more characteristic of lowland to montane forest than of subalpine scrubland.

Discussion

Interpretation of past vegetation from pollen data in New Zealand is subject as yet to many uncertainties, which may be reduced by future studies of contemporary pollen rain in areas of known vegetation. Few cold-climate preparations are completely without rare pollen grains from anemophilous forest trees, but the significance of such tree pollen in relation to a flood of grass pollen is uncertain—they may have been transported hundreds of miles or only a few miles. The presence of lowland to montane plant fossils ( Rubus seeds, Urtica and Leptospermum ericoides pollen) in preparations otherwise suggesting subalpine communities is also of uncertain significance. Finally, it is difficult to judge the significance for correlation of a fluctuation of the tree line so short in duration that its pollen record could not be found a second time despite two attempts to relocate it. These uncertainties of interpretation make it more important to record the data than to offer dogmatic interpretations.

Radiocarbon Date

A specimen of the 2in peaty silt at 97in to 99in in the section was submitted for 14 G dating (N.Z, 573). The date obtained, 19,200 years B.P. ± 560 years, is the mean date for a period of deposition that begins with an interval of relative mildness {N. menziesii horizon) and includes the subsequent cooling. It is assumed that the date applies to a period very shortly after the resumption of cold conditions, corresponding to the middle of the 2in bed dated.

Provisional Correlation

In Wellington Peninsula, 30 miles south of Paraparaumu, Brodie (1957) has presented evidence for a cold period, which he named the Takapu Stadial, from 20,000 to 23,000 years B.P. During the Takapu Stadial periglacial solifluxion filled pre-existing gullies with ill-sorted debris including remains of vegetation indicating climate considerably colder than the present. Judged by the presence of Astelia aff. linearis at low altitudes, the coldest Takapu Stadial climates were more extreme than those of the Lindale section. The main phase in fan building, when the greater part of the Matenga Fanglomerate was deposited, is correlated with the Takapu Stadial. The Lindale Section records the climate at the end of the stadial, a slight warming that allowed beech forest to return, followed by renewed cooling and periglacial fan-building. Whether the final stage of fan-building represents a later stadial (perhaps in the interval 18,000 to 15,000 8.P.) is uncertain on the evidence available locally; that such a later periglacial phase occurred is suggested by solifluxion deposits at Porirua (Brodie, 1957: 633).

Suggate (1965: 84) has tabulated a tentative series of events for the later fluctuations in the Otira Glaciation in the northern part of the South Island. The period c. 20,000 to c. 18,000 years B.P. saw retreat of glaciers from their maximum during the later Kumara 2 and Blackwater advances. From c. 18,000 to c. 16,000 years B.P. glaciers advanced in the early Kumara 3 and early Poulter phases. The date of 19,200 years B.P. from the Lindale section falls in the inferred period of glacial retreat, but the pollen record suggests that the retreat was completed some 1,200 years earlier than Suggate inferred. If the correlation of the Lindale fluctuation with the Kumara 2/3 amelioration proves acceptable, the Lindale pollen record provides evidence that the warming of climate (of which there is as yet no pollen evidence from the South Island) was on a limited scale and of short duration.

The Lindale fluctuation is on the scale of minor warmings of less intensity than an interstadial, for which G. Liittig has proposed the term “ interval ” (see Woldstedt, 1960: 149, footnote 2). It may be significant that no interstadials have been named in the corresponding period of the main Wiirm ( c . 24,000 to c. 16,000 years 8.P.) in Europe, although recognition of separate end moraines (Brandenburg, Frankfurt, and Pomeranian) indicates that there were minor ice retreats and warming “ intervals” (Coope, Shotton, and Strachan, 1961, table I).

Appendix 1: POLLEN ANALYSES FROM THE LIND ALE SECTION,

PARAPARAUMU

By

D. J. Mclntyre*

New Zealand Geological Survey

Samples from the carbonaceous lower part of the section were examined for pollen and spores in order to investigate the vegetation and climate of the area at the time of deposition. Details of lithologies and the positions of the two series of samples (L 2387—90 and L 3318—23) are shown in Fig. 3. A third set of samples (L 5000—6) collected at intervals from the main peaty bed was examined, but as the results are substantially similar to those from the other samples they are mentioned only briefly.

All samples yielded satisfactory pollen floras. Species present in the samples are shown in Table I, and the relative abundance of the common pollen types representing the more important indicators of vegetation and climate in the flora which shed the pollen are shown in Fig. 4. The percentage is made up of species shown in the pollen diagram.

The dominant pollen in most samples is that of Gramineae. In one sample (L 2388), at the base of the main peaty bed, Nothofagus menziesii pollen is dominant, and though grass pollen is minor compared with the rest of the profile, it is still extremely abundant. Compositae pollen is common, particularly at the base and the upper part. Pollen grains of the Dacrydium bidwillii-biforme group and of Phyllocladus sp. are present as minor components throughout and show a slight increase towards the top of the section. Nothofagus fusca group pollen occurs throughout but at no stage is it common. Pollen of other trees is very rare; in some samples a few grains of Dacrydium cupressinum and Podocarpus sp. occur (Table I)-

Though grass is the usual dominant, two samples apart from L 2388 are dominated by pollen of other groups. In L 3318 Urtica pollen is completely dominant, but it is concentrated on two small areas of one of the slides and appears to have come from an anther or flower which may have fallen into or been carried to the deposit. This isolated occurrence should not be regarded as representative of the regional or

even the local elements of the flora of the area and its significance in terms of vegetation is unknown. In L 3320 Leptospermum ericoides pollen is dominant. This sample probably represents a horizon close to that of L 2388, which is dominated by Nothofagus menziesii pollen.

The pollen diagram (Fig. 4) gives the relative abundances of types which are probably representative of the regional flora, and the plants shedding the grains were almost certainly the more important members of the vegetation. Most other pollen types, mainly herb and shrub species, are represented by only a few grains, and the parent plants are unlikely to have been prominent in the vegetation.

The pollen results indicate that for most of the time represented the dominant vegetation in the area was grassland which contained abundant Gompositae, possibly including Senecio and Olearia species. The small amount of pollen of Phyllocladus sp. and Dacrydium bidwillii-biforme group, suggests that the parent plants were not very common. Pollen grains of other herbs and shrubs are not common and the only ones which occur in most samples are Plagianthus sp., Coprosma sp., Umbelliferae, and Chenopodiaceae. The local swamp element is represented throughout by a few grains in each sample of Gyperaceae and Leptocarpus simplex. Pollen of Gyperaceae is particularly abundant in the lowest samples L 3319 and L 3322. The significance of the presence of pollens of Leptocarpus simplex, a predominantly coastal plant, is uncertain, but it is not unlikely that the pollen was carried inland by wind.

The period of grassland dominance is broken at the time of deposition of the lowest part of the main peaty bed by very short periods of dominance by Nothofagus menziesii (L 2388) and Leptospermum ericoides (L 3320), but grasses were nevertheless still important and abundant elements of the vegetation. A third collection

from the same horizon contained a grass-dominant pollen flora similar to those in the rest of the section. It is almost certain that N. menziesii and L. ericoides were dominant elements in the flora for very short periods only and the failure to find them again suggests that deposition of the peat has varied in rate laterally and perhaps even stopped in small patches for part of the time.

The occurrence of pollen of Nothofagus fusca group, Dacrydium cupressinum, and Podocarpus sp. in small amounts indicates that the trees were not entirely absent in the region but they were not important elements near the site of deposition. The dominance of grass with minor herb and shrub pollen in most of the profile and a general paucity of pollen of tree species suggests that the climate was unsuitable for the growth of forest in the area. The pollen evidence points to a considerably colder climate than the present climate and a depression of the upper altitudinal point of trees to at least present sea level and possibly lower. The present upper tree limit for the region is about 3,500 ft, and the samples occur at about 50ft above present sea level. At the same time, c. 19,200 years ago, sea level was probably 350 ft lower than present. The tree pollen probably came from trees growing some considerable distance from the deposit, perhaps up to 50 miles away on the floor of the present Cook Strait or Wanganui Bight.

The grassland probably grew in an environment equivalent to subalpine conditions above the tree line in the Tararua Range at the present day, and the change to Nothofagus menziesii dominance almost certainly represents only a very slight climatic amelioration. N. menziesii occurs in all samples and probably grew close enough to spread quickly as soon as conditions improved, even though the improvement was only a slight and very brief fluctuation. It is probable that Leptospermum ericoides dominance occurred at approximately the same time as the climate amelioration which permitted the spread of N. menziesii and it may represent a brief transitional phase. L. ericoides dominance was probably only local, judging by its abundance in L 3320 and almost complete absence in the other samples. After the brief climatic amelioration in which conditions were probably similar to those near and just below the present tree line in the Tararua Range there was a reversion to conditions more suitable for cold-climate grassland-scrubland. Judged by the small change in the vegetation and its short duration, it is probable that the climatic fluctuation was extremely small and that conditions for most of the time represented by the deposits were not much colder than those necessary for the development of upper montane forest or scrub.

Appendix 2: FOSSIL SEEDS FROM THE LIND ALE SECTION, PARAPARAUMU

By

C. R. Lennie

New Zealand Geological Survey*

The samples from N157/520 examined for fruits and seeds weighed from 10 to 211 b. They yielded poor seed floras. Ten unidentified seed types were recorded besides those in Table 11. The stratigraphic position of the samples, registered as 8839-45, are shown in Fig. 3.

The samples were also examined for insect remains; a number of insect fragments were found, but none has yet been identified.

References

Adkin, G. L., 1951. Geology of the Paekakariki Area of the Coastal Lowland of Western Wellington, Trans, R. Soc. N.Z. 79: 157-76. Allan, H. H., 1961. Flora of New Zealand , vol. 1. Wellington: Government Printer, 1085 pp. Brodie, J. W., 1957. Late Pleistocene beds, Wellington Peninsula. N.Z. Jl Sci. Technol. B 38: 623-43.

Coope, G. R.; Shotton, F. W.; Strachan, 1., 1961. A late Pleistocene fauna and flora from Upton Warren, Worcestershire. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Land. (B) 244: 379-421. Cotton, C. A., 1918. The geomorphology of the coastal district of southwestern Wellington. Trans. N.Z. Inst. 50: 212-22. 761-90, pi. 48-53.

Cotton., C. A.; Te Punga, M. T., 1955. Solifluxion and periglacially modified landforms at Wellington, New Zealand. Trans. R. Soc. N.Z. 82(5): 101-31. Cowie, J. D., 1963. Dune-building phases in the Manawatu district, New Zealand. N.Z. Jl Geol. Geophys. 6: 268-80.

Gowie, J. D.; Wellman, H. W., 1962. Age of Ohakea Terrace, Rangitikei River. N.Z. Jl Geol. Geophys. 5: 617-19. Fergusson, G. J.; Rafter, T. A., 1957. New Zealand 14 C age measurements —3. N.Z. Jl Sci. Technol. B 38: 732—49.

Fleming, G. A., 1961. The genesis of Horowhenua. Levin and Otaki weekly News. Dec. 1961: 7-8. Geol. Geophys. 8: 1222-3. Mclntyre, D. J., 1963. Pollen morphology of New Zealand species of Myrtaceae. Trans. R. Soc. N.Z. ( Botany) 2(7): 83-107.

Soons, J. M., 1962. A Survey of periglacial features in New Zealand. In “Land and Livelihood”, pp. 74-87, N.Z. Geographical Society. Stevens, G. R,, 1957. Solifluxion phenomena in the Lower Hutt area. N.Z. Jl Sci. Technol. B 38: 279-96. Suggate, R. P., 1965. Late Pleistocene geology of the northern part of the South Island, New Zealand. N.Z. geol. Surv. Bull. n.s. 77. 91 pp.

Te Punga, M. T., 1962: Some geological features of the Otaki-Waikanae district. N.Z. Jl Geol. Geophys. 5: 517-30. Wells, N.; Saunders, M. M. H., 1960. Soil studies using Sweet Vernal to assess element availability, part IV, Phosphorus. N.Z. Jl agr. Res. 3: 279-99.

Woldstedt, P., 1960. Die letzte Eiszeit in Nordamerika und Europa. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwert 11: 148-65. Zotov, V. D.; Elder, N. L.; Beddie, A. D.; Sainsbury, G. O. K.; Hodgson, E. A., 1938. An outline of the vegetation and flora of the Tararua Mountains. Trans. R. Soc. N.Z. 68: 259-324.

Dr C. A. Fleming, N.Z. Geological Survey, P.O. Box 30368, Lower Hutt.

1 Paraparaumu Peat (new formation), based on the name of the overlying soil type Paraparaumu Peaty Loam (Wells and Saunders, 1960), to include the superficial Holocene peats of the Wellington west coast from Raumati to Otaki, deposited in swamps and lagoons (many now drained) which were ponded behind Holocene dunes. Type locality: Paraparaumu, not more closely specified pending a detailed study. The formation consists of swamp peat or forest peat, locally superimposed, up to about 20ft thick, with variable macroscopic plant remains (including abundant timber in forest peat), and in a few places contains subfossil Paryphanta snails. In most places it overlies, underlies, and locally interfingers with Holocene dunesands (Foxton, Taupo, and younger formations), and inland from the postglacial cliff overlies Pleistocene formations (Fig. 1). Paraparaumu Peat is everywhere younger than the postglacial cliff and beach deposits dated as 5,140 years old (Fleming, 1966) and in places is still being formed. Mclntyre (1963) published an account of a pollen sequence at Waikanae in a 12ft profile of Paraparaumu Peat exposed in a ditch.

* Present address: Chevron Standard Limited, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

* Present address: Shell Development (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 3001.

L3319 L3321 L3318 L2387 L3322 L2388 L3320 L2389 L2390 L3323 Lycopodium billardieri Spring X L. fastigiatum R. Br. X X X L. scariosum Forst. f. X L. volubile Forst. f. X X X X Ophioglossum coriaceum A. Cunn. X X Gleichenia circinata Swartz X Cyathea sp. X X X Dicksonia squarrosa (Forst f.) Swartz X X X Phymatodes si] olium (Willd.) Pic. Ser. 1 ■ X X Paesia scaberula (A. Rich.) Kuhn X Histiopteris incisa (Thunb.) J. Smith X X Hypolepsis cf. tenuifolia (Forst. f.) Bernh. X X X X X X X Unidentified monolete spores X X X X X X X Trilites bifurcatus Couper X X X X Phyllocladus sp. X X X X X X X Dacrydium sp. ( bidwillii-biforme group). X X X X X X X D. cupressinum Lamb X X X Podocarpus sp. X X X Libocedrus sp. X X Ranunculaceae X X X Ascarina lucida Hook. f. X Cruciferae X X X Caryophyllaceae X X X Montia fontana L. X X X Muehlenbeckia sp. X X X X X Rumex sp. X X X Chenopodiaceae X X X X X X Haloragis sp. X Gunnera sp. X X X Myriophyllum sp. X X X X Epilobium sp. X Callitriche cf. petriei R. Mason X X Coriaria sp. X Leptospermum ericoides A. Rich. X X Aristotelia sp. X Plagianthus sp. X X X X X X Nothofagus menziesii (Hook, f.) Oerst. X X X X X X X N. sp. {fusea group) X X X X X X X Urtica sp. X Tupeia antarctica (Forst. f.) Cham, et Schlecht. X Araliaceae X Umbelliferae X X X X X Dracophyllum sp. X X X X Cyathodes fraseri (A. Cunn.) Allan X Myrsine sp. X X Myrsine sp. X XX X Coprosma sp. X X X X X X X Compositae X X X X X X X Gentiana sp. X Plantago sp. X Myosotis sp. X Euphrasia cuneata Forst. f. X Hebe sp. X X X Astelia sp. X

Table I.—Spores and Pollen in samples from the Lindale section.

L3319 L3321 L3318 L2387 L3322 L2388 L3320 L2389 L2390 L3323 Cyperaceae X X X X X X X Gramineae X X X X X X X Leptocarpus simplex A. Rich. X X X X X X X

w w w w w w w CO Co ■ fry CO CO . K. go ■ K. CO , rx co f\. Cji oa l\3 o CO 03 03 . r-v 03 ■ N. 03. . rs. co . rv CO N Kj X 3 <j a H Oi I H-** X •+*■ X X X 1 X Montia fontana L. 03 IO *+* K— *■ *+* o CO <J N X 1 cj H X X X X 1 X Hydrocotyle sp. I 1 X I X 1 X I X 1 i X X 1 L. fontana Rubus sp. 1 1 X X X 1 X X X 1 i 1 X 1 Hydrocotyle Oxalis sp. 1 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 X 1 1 X Rubus sp. Compositae 1 sp. 1 X X I •1 X X I 1 1 i 1 1 1 Oxalis sp. Gompositae sp. I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 X i 1 X 1 Compositae 1 sp. Kirk Haloragis Puniflora X X 1 X X X I X ■I X i X 1 1 2 sp. Potomogeton sp. 1 X 1 X 1 X 1 X X X i X 1 X ? flora Juncus X X X X X 1 Potomogeton sp. XX X X X X X Juncus sp. X

Table 11.