FLORA OF THE PERMIAN EPOCH. 71 



was roughened A^dth ornament ; and in attempting to call up 

 in fancy the old Carboniferous forests, he has to dwell on this 

 peculiar feature as one of the most prominent ; and to see in the 

 multitude of trunks darkened above by clouds of foliage that 

 rise upon him in the prospect, the slender columns of an older 

 Alhambra, roughened with arabesque tracery and exquisite 

 filigree work." 



The nature of the vegetation during the Permian period, 

 which is associated with the Carboniferous, under the reign 

 of Acrogens, has been extensively illustrated by Goeppert. 

 Brongniart has enumerated the fossils in three different 

 localities, which he refers doubtfully to this period. 1. 

 The flora of the bituminous slates of Thuringia, composed 

 of Algsd, Ferns, and Conifera3. 2. Flora of the Pemiian sand- 

 stones of Russia, comprehending Ferns, Equisetacet^, Lycopo- 

 diacea?, and Nocggerathite. 3. Flora of the slaty schists of 

 Lod^ve, composed of Ferns, Asterophyllites, and Conifera?. 

 The genera of Ferns here met with are those found in the 

 Carboniferous epoch ; the Gymnosperms are chiefly species of 

 Walchia and Noeggerathia (the latter is supposed by Schimper 

 to be a Cycad) ; Lepidodendron elongatum, Calamites gigas, 

 and Annularia floribunda, are also species of this period. 

 Walchia is a conifer characteristic of the Permian epoch, of 

 which there are eight species described (Figs. 55 and 56). It 

 has a single seed to each scale of the cone, and two kinds of 

 leaves, the one short and imbricated, the other long and spread- 

 ing. Among the plants of the Pemiian formation Goeppert 

 enumerates the following :* — Equisetites contractus, Calamites 

 Suckowi, C. leioderma, Asterophyllites equisetiformis, A. 

 elatior, Huttonia truncata, H. equisetiformis, many species of 

 Psaronius, one of the filicoid plants, Hymenophyllites com- 

 planatus, Sphenopteris crassinervia, Sagenopteris ta^nigefolia, 

 Neuropteris imbricata, and many other species of these 

 * See Meyer's Palaeontographica, Cassel, 1864. 



