Wealdean Epoch. 79 



potter's clay in this formation, near Savignies. In Germany, 

 on the contrary, this species is wanting, and Abietites Linkii 

 becomes the predominating plant. With regard to Brachy- 

 phyllum, I have not yet had it in my power to study them in 

 a natural state ; but the figures given of them leave little 

 doubt as to their analogy with the species of the Oolitic 

 epoch. 



"The abundance of the Cycadese likewise forms a distinctive 

 character of the Wealdean formations of Germany. Still there 

 are, as has been seen, many species common to the two basins; 

 and I may add, that probably the Sphenopteris Goepperti, 

 Dunk.^ does not differ from Sphenopteris Phillipsii, Mant. 



" I have not included in this list some marine plants men- 

 tioned as belonging to the beds of this epoch ; \st, because it 

 appears to me doubtful whether they really belong to the 

 Wealdean and not to the Glauconian epoch ; 2dly, because it 

 still appears to me uncertain, w^hether the species mentioned, 

 Chondrites sequalis and intricatus, are quite identical, speci- 

 fically with the species of this name belonging to the fucoidal 

 sandstone lying above the chalk. 



" III. Reign of the Angiosperms. — The dominating cha- 

 racter of this last transformation of the vegetation of the 

 globe, is the appearance of Angiospermous dicotyledons, 

 those vegetables which actually constitute more than three- 

 fourths of the vegetable creation of our epoch, and which 

 appear to have acquired this predominance from the com- 

 mencement of the Tertiary formations. For a long period I 

 was of opinion that these vegetables did not begin to appear 

 till after the chalk, with the earliest beds of the Tertiary for- 

 mations ; but more recent investigation has shewn that beds 

 belonging to the Chalk formation present some very distinct 

 examples. 



"These vegetables appear even at the beginning of the Chalk 

 formation ; for it is certain that many well-determined species 

 exist in the quadersandstein and planerkalk of Germany, 

 which appear to correspond to the green sandstone of France, 

 or green sand of English geologists ; although this formation 

 in France and England has never yielded any of them, but 

 only some examples of CycadesDjConiferse, and marine plants. 



