418 Carboniferous System of the United States. 



1st, from the reptilian remains. 



2d, from the fish remains. 



3d, from the vegetable remains, and, 



4th, from an nnconformability of the lower or coal-bearing 

 strata of the red sandstone system, and the upper and non-pro- 

 ductive. 



If Prof. Emmons' views are adopted, there is a beauty and har- 

 mony in the geological history of America not otherwise dis- 

 covered. With equal steps, and in grand procession, the geo- 

 logical phenomena proceed with the palseontological, from the 

 first appearance of a land plant to the complete metamorphism 

 of the hydro-carbon of plants into bituminous, semi-bituminous, 

 and anthracite coal. While the brown coal, or lignite, would 

 belong to another age, having its own peculiar geological and 

 biological phenomena, allied to each other and distinct from the 

 preceding age. 



The carboniferous, then, will begin with the dawn of insular 

 and continental vegetation, and terminate with the true coals — 

 including " the false coal measures," " the sub-carboniferous," 

 " the barren measures," " the upper and lower coal measures," 

 " the Permian coals," "the Jurassic coals," or whatever name 

 or synonym may be used, excluding lignite or impure coal. A 

 system giving us nearly six thousand feet of sedimentary strata, 

 deposited under similar conditions, over an area of the American 

 continent extending from Nova Scotia to Texas, and from North 

 Carolina to the Rocky Mountains, if not the Sierra Nevada — 

 obeying one comprehensive law of chemical action, and exhi- 

 biting one magnificent era of floral verdure with coeval land 

 and marine faunas. 



GENEKA OF PLANTS IN THE ENLARGED CAEBONIFEROUS. 



Permian. — Anabracaulis, Calamites, Chondrites, Dictyocau- 

 lis, Equisetum, Filias, Gymnocaulus, Lycopodites, Spheno- 

 pteris, Walchia. 



Carloniferoiis. — Aleopteris, Allamodendron, Alethopteris, 



