Remarks on the Ancient Flora of' the Earth. 117 



we reflect that the very numerous animal remains of this for- 

 mation have, for the most part, been inhabitants of the ocean. 

 From the accurate discrimination of M. Brongniart, we have 

 lately learned to recognise from five to six kinds of Fucoides, 

 which are found in the copperslate or hupferscMefer, (a member 

 of the magnesian Umestone) of Mansfeld, and in the forest of 

 Thuringia. It is nevertheless highly probable, that at the 

 time when this remarkable intermediate stratum was formed, 

 there were parts of the dry land rising above the level of the 

 ocean. We at least find sufficient proofs of land plants occur- 

 ring along with those just mentioned, in zechstein and Tcupfer- 

 schiefer. For if, upon closer investigation, those plants called 

 Lycopodium by Schlotheim (Leonh. Taschenbuch, vii. p. 55,) 

 and the Lycopodiol. funiculatus of Ilmenau (Petrefactenk, p. 

 415 ; Lycop. taxifoHus, Sternb. Fasc. iv. p. 8), are proved to 

 be nothing else than sea-algae ; and if the remark made by 

 Count Sternberg (Fasc. iv. pp. 40, 44), that Bnickmannia 

 tuherculata, Pecoptoris obtusa, and Alethopteris vulgatior, are 

 found in hupferscMefer, may have been caused by imperfect 

 information regarding their local situation ; yet Freisleben 

 (Kupfersch. Geb. iii. p. 182), very distinctly describes the im- 

 pression of an articulated calamite, or similar plant, in the kup- 

 ferschiefer of the county of Mansfeld. Single pieces of coal, in 

 which the fibrous texture of wood is preserved, are neither in 

 Mansfeld nor in the forests of Thuringia of rare occurrence. 

 But the woods, having the Dicotyledonous structure, and so 

 abundant at Frankenberg in Hesse, are above all things con- 

 vincing. More than twenty years ago they were described and 

 delineated by UUman (Mineralogberg, and Hiittanmanlsche 

 Beobachtungen, 1803, p. 80, tab. i) ; and recently by Bonn 

 (Leonh. Taschenbuch, 1828, p. 509), they were with great 

 probability considered as a kind of cypress. Impressions of ferns 

 are also frequently found along with these woods. The latest 

 ob.servations entitle us to reckon the formation of Frankenberg 

 rich in mineral treasures to the zechstein ov kupferschief'er. I 

 may here be further permitted to state, that Mr Sedgwick found 

 in the marl-slate of East Thickley in Durham, impressions of 

 two or three species of ferns, some of which perfectly correspond 

 with those of the copper-slate, kupferscltiefer of IMansfcld, and 



