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LoS beeen 

4 TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 53 
marvellously rich in coal plants, certain striking forms are found in the rothe-todte- 
liegende which have never been detected in the subjacent coal strata. Among these 
are forms of Neuropteris closely approaching to, if not identical with, species which 
occur in the Permian rocks, and with this similarity there is no trace of the common 
plants of the underlying coal (Stigmaria ficoides, &c.). These plants being imbedded in 
a whitish or cream-coloured, finely levigated claystone, and their leaves being brought 
into beautiful relief by being as green as if they had been successfully dried in a her- 
barium, form admirable subjects for the most precise distinctions of the fossil bota- 
nist, and, through the kindness of his Saxon friends, Mr. Murchison hopes to be able 
to lay some examples of them before the Geological Society of London. 
In Silesia (at Ruppersdorf, and other localities west of Waldenburg, between 
Breslau and Glatz) there is a fine development of strata from the base of the rothe- 
todte-liegende, where that deposit equally overlies a productive coal-field, there based 
upon true mountain limestone, and passes up 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 lime- 
stone; Mr. Murchison does not hesitate to consider it the equivalent of the zechstein, 
and the whole red group of which it forms a member, as the Permian system ; for 
besides its very clear position, this calcareous flagstone contains plants and fishes 
similar to those of the Permian rocks of Russia. Among the former the Newrop- 
teris conferta, nov. sp., of the distinguished botanist Goppert, has been identified 
with one of the most common forms brought from Russia. The most abundant fish 
is the Paleoniscus Vratislabiensis, 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 have been spoken of in memoirs read 
before the Geological Society, and will shortly appear at length in a work upon the 
geology of Russia. On this point, however, he begged to take the opportunity of 
publicly stating, that his opinion was now perfectly in harmony with that of his dis- 
tinguished friend Professor Phillips, viz. that the fauna of the zechstein, or mag- 
nesian limestone, has to so great an extent the same general zoological type as the 
carboniferous limestone, that it must jalso form a part of the paleoxoic series. Mr. 
Murchison formerly withheld his assent to this opinion because the rock in question 
contained Saurians,—animals unknown in the lower palozoic deposits—and also 
because the zechstein or magnesian limestone seemed to him to be more naturally 
connected with the strata overlying it, than with the underlying carboniferous system. 
On the latter point Mr. Murchison called the attention of the Section to the fact, that 
the examination of Russia had established what was previously unknown, viz. that 
considerable masses of red sandstone, marls and conglomerate overlying bands of lime- 
stone with unequivocal zechstein or magnesian fossils, contained, nevertheless, the same 
group of plants and fishes as was associated with the underlying beds, and also peculiar 
Thecodont Saurians, which Professor Owen has pronounced to be similar to those 
of our magnesian limestone, or to the Protorosaurus of Germany. What then 
was to be done with this great overlying mass, occupying exactly the same place in 
the series, and often closely resembling, in mineral character, the lower half of the 
bunter-sandstein? The answer is, that as the old line of demarcation, which included 
all this mass in the trias, was founded solely on lithological aspect, so must it bend 
to the new evidences, be grouped with the zechstein, and under the name of Per- 
mian, be considered as the upper member of the palzozoic series. 
Mr. Murchison postponed his announcement of this view until he had ascertained, 
whether the natural sections in any part of Germany afforded data to contradict it. 
But his recent excursion enables him to say, that neither in Hessia, nor in Saxony, 
nor in the Thuringerwald, the countries where the zechstein and kupfer-schiefer are 
most fully developed, do the red rocks which form their roof contain any animal 
remains whatever, and all the German professors to whom he has referred are 
ignorant of such. The truth is, that the upper mass only of the bunter-sandstein 
is that which contains remains of animals and plants analogous to those of the 
‘muschelkalk which rests upon it. Such beds, for example, are those of Soulz-les- 
bains, near Strasbourg, and of Buberhausen, near Deux-ponts ; whilst the upper 
_ * In his ‘ Poissons Fossiles’ M. Agassiz has been misinformed, when he terms this deposit 
carboniferous. - 
