66 Geological Society. Mr. Murchison's 



Waldheim (Rhopalodon Mantellii, Fisch.), have been pronouneed by 

 Professor Owen to belong to the class of thecodont Saurians of 

 that author (See Report on Saurians to the British Association, 1841, 

 p. 153). 



Certain plants of this great deposit have been figured by M. Ku- 

 torga, and referred by him to the carboniferous epoch ; others col- 

 lected by Major Wangenheim Von Qualen have been named by M. 

 Fischer de Waldheim, who, as well as their discoverer, felt great dif- 

 ficulty in forming any decisive opinion respecting the age of the 

 strata in which these fossils occur. Having examined the localities 

 and sections, the authors convinced themselves on the spot, that 

 all these plants are of intermediate character between those of the 

 carboniferous and triassic seras*. These vegetables of the Permian 

 system, and many undescribed species of shells with which they are 

 associated, will be figured in a forthcoming work on the geology 

 of Russia, and for this purpose M. Fischer has kindly contributed 

 some beautiful drawings of new genera and species which he had 

 prepared at Moscow. 



The publication of these new species will show that the epoch of 

 the Zechstein was characterized by a flora peculiar to it. These 

 fossil plants, although generally appearing to constitute an inde- 

 pendent flora, offer some analogies in form to a few species belong- 

 ing to the carboniferous series : one species cannot easily be distin- 

 guished from the coal-measure plant, Cal. Suckovoii, which Bron- 

 gniart considers to be very variable in form and to have a great 

 geographical range. Among the characteristic forms may be men- 

 tioned the Catamites gigas, Neuropteris Wangenheimii, N. salicifolia, 

 Odontopteris Strogonovii, Sphenopteris erosa, Noeggerathia undulata, 

 and some other species to be described. 



These plants are sometimes accompanied by thin courses of coal 

 and lignite, which near Perm have some of the external characters 

 of poor coal-fields. But while the carbonaceous appearances are 

 evanescent and local, the fossil stems and leaves are very general 

 indicators of the presence of copper ore, which, in the form of gray 

 oxide and green carbonate, is often copiously disseminated through 

 the vegetable matter, or arranged around the thicker branches in 

 masses, from which it extends in fine filaments into the adjacent sands 

 ormarls. In all cases, the copper ores of this region occur in laminae, 

 inosculating with the other regular strata, in which respect they 

 differ essentially from the chief copper ores of other countries. They 

 are, in fact, regenerated ores, formed, it is conceived, by cupriferous 

 streams and currents that flowed from the adjacent Ural moun- 

 tains, which, it will be shown, were, during very early periods, the 

 site of great copper veins f. 



As a solution of copper which was let loose by accident in modern 



* Mr. Morris, who has undertaken the description of the new species 

 of these plants, completely confirms the views of the authors. (See letter 

 of Mr. Murchison, dated Moscow, October, 1841. Phil. Mag. S. 3. vol. xix. 

 p. 418.) 



■f Among the mineral analogies between the Permian rocks and those of 



