viii. PERMIAN FOSSILS. 95 



To the Permian period are referred some considerable tracts of 

 red sandstones and red clays and shales, which lie over the coal 

 strata of Warwickshire, as about Coventry, at Meriden and Arden. 

 These were till lately classed with the new red strata, and regarded 

 as the lower part of that system, called by German geologists the 

 1 Bunter Sandstein/ They are conjectured to be 2,000 feet thick. 

 In connexion with these, some partially calcareous beds occur at 

 Exhall, and yield shells of the genus Strophalosia, which is found 

 in the magnesian limestone of Durham, and is allied to the well- 

 known Products of the mountain limestone. In the neighbourhood 

 of Kenilworth and Coventry portions of the head, jaw, and teeth 

 of a labyrinthodont reptile (Dasyceps Bucklandi) have been found, 

 with cycadiform plants; and coniferous wood at Allesley. Lepi- 

 dodendron and calamites are quoted from Exhall. At Kenilworth, 

 in sandstone conglomerate, some corals, encrinite stems, and shells 

 of Permian type occur d . 



The whole catalogue of organic remains from the Warwickshire 

 Permian beds stands thus : 



PLANTS. Caulerpites oblonga. Meriden. 



iriangulari s. Meriden. 



Breea eulassioides. Lloyd. Meriden. 



Coniferous wood. Allesley. 



Lepidodendron dilatatum. Ex ball. 



Sternbergia. Exhall. 



Calamites. Exball. 



Unascertained. Meriden. 

 COBALS. .... Kenilworth. 



CKINOIDS. (stems) Kenilworth. 



BRACHIOPOD. (Strophalosia ?). Exhall. 

 REPTILES. Dasyceps Bucklandi. Kenilworth, Coventry. 



On this catalogue a few remarks may be useful. The plants here 

 named, Caulerpites oblonga and C. triangularis, are found in the 

 reddish building sandstone of Meriden, near Coventry. As usual 

 in such cases, the substance of the plant is removed, and its natural 

 affinity can only be determined, or conjectured, by examining the 

 form of the impression and the markings of the surface. Caul- 

 erpites, supposed to be a genus of fossil marine plants, has left 

 one species (C. selaginoi'des, Sternberg] in the marl slate of Durham. 



Of Breea eulassioides no description has yet been published. 



d Howell, Memoirs of Geological Survey Warwickshire Coalfield. 1859. 



