FOREIGN WORK AMONGST THE OLDER ROCKS. 17 



The Palaeozoic rocks of Tuscany can now be divided 

 into : — 



1. Middle Silurian with Gomphoceras, Cardiola, etc. 



2. Lower Devonian of Elba. 



3. Upper Coal Measures of Monte Pisano, etc. 



I have been unable to obtain access to another paper 

 (18) on Devonian rocks occurring at no great distance from 

 these. 



Follenius (19) describes a coal-seam occurring in the 

 Upper Devonian (Coblenzian) of the Eifel district. It 

 contains remains of marine plants — Haliserites — described 

 as generically identical with Psilophyton of the American 

 Devonian rocks and with Hostinella {Fucoides) hostinensis 

 of the Etaze H. of Bohemia. The Bohemian beds H. are 

 now generally admitted to be Devonian, and indeed are 

 referred by Freeh to the Upper Devonian, and it is in- 

 teresting to find remains of this plant so widely spread in 

 beds of this age. Another remarkable discovery of similar 

 organisms in beds of about the same age in remote regions 

 is seen in the case of Spiraxis. Stainier (20) has discovered 

 a new form belonging to this genus in the Psammites du 

 Condroz. The genus was originally described by New- 

 berry from the Chemung rocks of North America, of an 

 age about equal to that of the Condrusian deposits. Our 

 present author is inclined to regard these remarkable bodies 

 as algae. 



In the New World the discovery of Devonian rocks in 

 California is announced by Diller and Schuchert (21). Dr. 

 C. A. White originally suggested that parts of the auri- 

 ferous states were older than the Carboniferous. Since 

 then Silurian rocks have been discovered in the region, 

 and now the authors brino forward evidence of the exist- 

 ence of beds belonging to the Middle Devonian (probably 

 its lower part), about the horizon of the Corniferous group, 

 but the correlation is somewhat doubtful, as the fossils 

 found are chiefly corals, whose vertical distribution, has not 

 yet been systematically worked out. 



