Carboniferous Period. 329 
This vegetation of the great carboniferous period disap- 
peared almost completely along with it; the Permian period 
which succeeded it, presents only a kind of residuum of it, al- 
ready deprived of the greater part of its most characteristic 
genera, and during the vosgian, or variegated sandstone 
period, we no longer find any trace of it. 
T cannot terminate this account of the vegetation of the 
carboniferous period, without saying a few words respecting 
the incomprehensible exception to this regular and uniform 
distribution of the fossil vegetables, presented by the anthrax- 
iferous formations of the Alps, if they really belong to the 
epoch of the lias, as is admitted by M. Elie de Beaumont, as 
well as by many other distinguished geologists, who concur in 
his opinion. I cannot here discuss the reasons derived from 
geological observations properly so called, which have led M. 
de Beaumont to this conclusion. Iam well aware of the weight 
which the precise and well-directed observations of my learned 
friend have in the science. But when we consider that the 
researches undertaken by so many men of science and col- 
lectors have shewn that the vegetables contained in these 
beds are, without exception, those of the coal epoch, without 
the mixture of a single fragment of the fossil vegetables of 
the lias, of the jurassic period, of the keuper or variegated 
anomalous sandstone, we ask in vain what explanation can be 
given of this singular fact, and whether the shells. so few in 
number, which have particularly contributed to cause these 
formations to be referred to the jurassic period, are a very 
positive proof of this geological position. Their small num- 
ber, their state of preservation so imperfect that their specific 
determination is either impossible or doubtful,—do these cir- 
cumstances admit of more value being assigned to them than 
to this assemblage of numerous vegetables, the greater part 
easily determined as to species, which are found in the an- 
thracitic beds? In 18281 gave a list of these fossils, contain- 
ing 25 species, 20 of which were specifically determined, and 
all identical with the species of the coal-formation. M. Bun- 
bury has undertaken a similar task with regard to the col- 
lections deposited'in the museum of Turin; he has come to 
the same result. I may add that, many years ago, l received 
