SAPORTA'S WORLD OF PLANTS. 



4-55 



tual Gnetacete, The true phanerogams, the angiosperms, appeared 

 much later. Further, the carboniferous flora comprehended some 

 Cycadea?, such as the Noeggerathia foUosa, and a pterophyllum dis- 

 covered recently by M. Grand' Eury ; some true conifers, as the 

 Walchia ; some Taxineae more or less like our Ginkgo ; and, finally, a 

 great number of Cordaiticse, most of which were great trees so per- 

 fectly preserved that they could not only be placed at the head of the 

 gymnosperms, but their affinities with the class of angiosperms could 

 also be observed. 



The Permian flora, which succeeded the Carboniferous, is only a 

 pale reflection of it. The characteristic type of the preceding age 

 has disappeared, while the others, the Cycadese, the conifers (Fig. 5), 

 and the Taxinea3, tend to preponderate. The Permian is an epoch of 

 transition, having ambiguous characters. The constituent elements 

 of the coming vegetation were being developed. Saporta says of the 

 Trias, which commences the Secondary or mesophytic period, that " it 

 appears to correspond to one of those periods of revival where the 



ff^rrr'V f\, 



Fig. 5.-CHARACTERISTIC Pershak Plants : Conifers. 1, 2. Walchia piniformis (Stronb)-l, 

 branch; 2, detached cone. 3,4. Ulmannia frumenfaria (Goepp)— .3. branch; 4, strobile. 5. 

 Gmkgophyllum Grasset(i—Sa.p, branch, leaves (Permian Schist of Lodove and Herault). 



failing types finally disappear, while those which displace them are 

 successively introduced. The first leave chasms because they are re- 

 duced to a decreasing number of individuals ; the last are yet obscure 

 and rare. Both old and young are equally feeble, and, when these two 

 extremes meet, the apparel of nature seems poor and monotonous." 

 At the beginning of the Jurassic period a transformation is already 



