314 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



only one species has been hitherto observed. Libocedrites Salicorni- 

 oides, that is met with in Silesia in amber, and in the brown coal 

 formation. Of the 130 species that have been found at Schossnitz, 

 up to the beginning of March, there are no less than 118 which are 

 new. As a peculiarity in this tertary flora, may be cited the consid- 

 erable number of oaks, of which already 25 varieties have been 

 observed, whereas at present, only 13 are known to occur in Eu- 

 rope, and for most part, the species discovered, belong to those with 

 incised leaves. There are, morever, no less than 17 varie- 

 ties of elm, some unquestionably planes and varieties of maple perfect- 

 ly distinct from any hitherto discovered. It need hardly be observed 

 that our acquaintance with the riches of this recently discovered deposits 

 is as yet, necessarily very imperfect. Palms, which are not within other 

 tertiary deposits in the immediate neighborhood, have not thus far, 

 been found ; indeed, no monocotylidons have been observed with the 

 exception of a few leaves of grass. The origin of the deposite has 

 been explained on the supposition that there existed here formerly an 

 inland lake, into which, the leaves and blossoms of the trees that per- 

 ished on the banks were carried by the wind and became subsequently, 

 imbedded in the clayey mud. This recently discovered deposite bears 

 out the idea, that although the majority of the genera of the plants 

 occurring in the tertiary formation are similar to those now met with in 

 Europe, although the species are different and agree rather with 

 African forms than ours, yet that this formation, speaking generally, 

 contains a flora distinct from that of the actual flora of the districts 

 mentioned, and analagous rather to that of countries, situated several 

 degrees more to the South ; the flora of the deposite at Schossuitz, 

 answering, it will be seen, to that of the vegetation in the Southern 

 portion of the United States or to that of the North of Mexico. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE COAL FORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



PROF. ROGERS, at the Boston Society of Natural History, 1852, 

 presented some observations of Dr. Les Quereux on the coal formation 

 of the United States. 



The coal deposites of the central, southern, and western portions of 

 the United States are found to rest on the same foundation rock, 

 which is usually a coarse sandstone, Avith occasional pebbles, some 

 siliceous gravel and igneous quartz. Such an extensive deposit can- 

 not be accounted for by the theory that it is a bed of ancient estuary. 

 Some of its materials must have come from a source a least one 

 thousand miles distant. It is of great value to geologists from its 

 extent, as giving a fixed period in geological time. In two localities 

 in Ohio and the western part of Pennsylvania several beds of 

 coal are found beneath this formation, indicating a condition of things 

 favorable to the production of coal anterior to the rush of waters from 

 the north, over which the rest is built up. 



Dr Jackson remarked that it would be very interesting to trace snrh 

 a wide-spread deposite to its original source. In New Bunswick, on 

 the Peticodiac lliver, he had found a hard green slate, with pieces of 



