XXVi INTRODUCTION. 
plants which have been found in the first group) are of a decided Paleozoic type—a 
fact which greatly astonished me when I examined the Magnesian limestone groups more 
than thirty years since. If we adopt the term Permian, as a general designation of the 
series, it must be done with proper limitations derived from the English types. For to 
class under the Paleozoic name, Permian, the red sandstone of St Bees’ Head, or the 
great Red Sandstone of central England, would, I think, be perfectly erroneous. It would 
be the sacrifice of a natural and well-established sequence of the British deposits to the 
consistency of a newly adopted foreign name. On this account we have, I think, been 
premature in using the term Permian to define a British series, which appears not to be 
quite co-ordinate with the Permian series of Russia. The English type is in fact better, 
for the purpose of European comparison, than the Russian; and where we have a good 
and unambiguous English type it is an injurious anomaly, in the present condition of our 
nomenclature, to introduce a foreign name into the English series*. 
In the south of England the whole series is sometimes represented by a mass of con- 
glomerate. In central England, Warwickshire, &e. it is represented by a coarse red sandstone, 
some beds of which become calcareous; and the whole group is conformable to, and appears to 
pass into, the coal-measures. About the commencement of the Triassic period, these Permian 
sandstones underwent contortions along with the coal-strata; in consequence of which we see, 
in Warwickshire, the upper Triassic groups resting discordantly upon the inclined beds of these 
sandstones. 
In conclusion we may remark,— 
1. That it is not in all cases an easy matter to draw a clear line between this series and 
the carboniferous. Thus Mr W. Smith, in his old geological map of Yorkshire, considers the 
lowest group (No. 5) as one of the coal-measures. The series most frequently commences with 
a discordancy of position and a co-ordinate change of organic types. With limited exceptions, 
the fora and fauna of the Permian groups differ from those of the Carboniferous period. 
2. The several groups of the series admit of a very close comparison with the Rothe- 
todte-liegende, the Kupfer Schiefer, and the Zechstein, &c. of Germany. 
* The present nomenclature of the British groups, from the oldest Paleozoic to the newest Tertiary, is essentially 
geographic and local. The Pomfret Series would be a far better, and a far less ambiguous name for the English dolomitic 
series than the name Permian. The name Pomfret series (or system) would moreover connect the nomenclature with that of 
Mr W. Smith, as recorded in his old map of Yorkshire 1821. We have, however, done right in adopting one foreign designa- 
tion, Zrias; because in that part of the general series the English type is singularly defective. 
*,* The previous part of the Introduction was commenced before the expiration of the past year, and some of it has 
been standing several months in type. What follows may be regarded as a Postscript to the Introduction. A long 
continued indisposition has prevented the Author from resuming what remained of his task before the time indicated below. 
Had he been in better health, he could easily haye completed the Introduction in the course of a few days. 
Trinity Cottece, March 2, 1855. 
