Scientific Intelligence — Geologi/, 391 



plants collected and partly described by Captain Gutbior, Mr Mur- 

 chison believes that such a separation exists. Among the coal- 

 plants of Saxony are forms of Neuroptoris, closely approaching to, 

 if not identical with, those species which occur in the Permian rocks, 

 whilst there is no trace of the common plants of the underlying coal. 

 These plants being imbedded in a whitish or cream-coloured finely 

 levigated clay-stone, and their leaves being brought into beautiful 

 relief by being invariably as green as if they had been peculiarly and 

 happily dried in an herbarium, form admirable subjects for the most 

 precise distinctions of the fossil botanist. In Silcfda (at Ruppendoif, 

 and other localities west of Waldenberg, between Brcslau and Glatz) 

 there is a fine development of strata from the base of the Rothe-todte- 

 liegende (where that deposit overlies a productive coal-field based 

 upon true mountain limestone) into other red sandstones and shales, 

 which have a marked aspect, from being interlaced with bands of 

 black, bituminous, thin, flaggy, limestone. Though doubts had been 

 entertained as to the age of this limestone, Mr Murchison does not 

 hesitate to consider it as the equivalent of the Zechstein, and the 

 whole red group, of which it forms a member, as the counterpart of 

 the Permian system ; for, besides its very clear position, this cal- 

 careous flag-stone contains plants and fishes similar to those of the 

 Permian rocks of Russia. Among the former, the Ncuropteris con- 

 fertOf nov, spec, of Goppert, has been identified with the most common 

 fern brought from Russia. The most abundant fish, is Palaoniscus 

 Wratislavicnsis, Ag. On this occasion Mr Murchison passed rapidly 

 over the zoological proofs that the Zechstein and Kupfer-Schiefer of 

 Germany are the equivalents of the calcareous beds of the Permian 

 system of Russia, as these had been given in detail in memoirs read be- 

 fore the Geological Society. He stated, however, that his opinion was 

 now perfectly in harmony with that of Professor Phillips, namely, that 

 the fauna of Zechstein, or magnesian limestone, has so much of the 

 same general zoological typeas the carboniferous limestone, that it must 

 also form part of the Pal{«ozoic series. Mr Murchison then proceeded 

 to consider the age of these lower beds of the Bunter-sandstein, which 

 had been hitherto included in the trias, on lithological evidence only. 

 They contain no fossils either in Hesse, Saxony, or the Thuringerwald, 

 where the Zechstein and Kupfer-Schiefer are most developed ; and 

 from all Mr Murchison's inquiries and observations, it appears that 

 the upper mass only of the Bunter-sandstein contains the remains 

 of plants and animals analogous to those of the Muschelkalk, which 

 rests upon it. The footmarks of the Cheriothcrium appeared also to 



