112 PP. REPORT OF PROGRESS. FOIfTAIlSrE & WHITE. 



Grand' Eury, in his account of the Permian of Central 

 France, in his "Flor. Car. da Departement de la Loire, 

 et du Centre de la France," says that the Upper Coal Meas- 

 ures' flora passes insensibly into the Permian, there being 

 a mixture of the two floras, and that he often finds it al- 

 most impossible to draw the line of separation. He states 

 that the researches of himself, Weiss, and Goeppert, have 

 raised the number of species common to the Coal Measures 

 and to the Permian to fifty. 



Of these 6 species, Neuropteris hirsuta is the only one 

 found above the Waynesburg Sandstone, so that whatever 

 significance their presence in the transition beds between 

 the Waynesburg Coal and Sandstone may have, this is 

 lost in passing above them. 



Let us now consider the species common to the Upper 

 Barrens and to the European Permian. Of these 28 spe- 

 cies, 12 have never been found in the Coal Measures of the 

 United States, and two, CalUpteris conferta and Alethop- 

 teris gigas^ are exclusively Permian. The j)resence of 

 Callipteris conferta, is usually considered as proof of the 

 Permian age of the strata containing it. Odontopteris 

 obtusiloba, though commencing in the highest strata of 

 the Carboniferous, as Grand' Eury shows, is a characteristic 

 Permian plant. Annularia carinata, if distinct from An- 

 nularia calamitoides, would be peculiarly a Permian plant. 

 It seems to us, however, to be the same with A. calami- 

 toides. 



Passing to representative and allied species, we have 

 some whose presence bears weightily in the argument. 



Baiera Virginiana differs from B. digitata, the Permian 

 plant, chiefly in its greater size and robustness. The genus 

 Baiera begins in the European Permian. 



Taeniopteris Lescuriana is the representative of T. mul- 

 tinervis, an exclusively Permian plant ; while T. Newberry- 

 iana is closely allied to T. coriacea, also Permian. Both, 

 in many features, seem prototypes of much more recent 

 forms found in the Mesozoic. 



Sphenopteris coriacea is closely allied to the Permian 



