116 PP. REPORT OF PROGRESS. FONTAINE & WHITE. 



nus SO nearly allied to Salisburia or Gingko, is of great im- 

 portance, both as indicating that great changes were occur- 

 ing in the flora, and also as establishing the fact that the 

 peculiar coniferous type, which in Gringko or Salisburia, 

 attains such importance in the Jurassic, had already made 

 its appearance in the Permian. 



Heer, in his fourth volume of the Arctic Flora, shows 

 that the Gingko, or Salisburia, had acquired a great devel- 

 opment in the number of forms and in the abundance of in- 

 dividuals in the Jurassic. Hence a priori we should ex- 

 pect to And the first appearance of the type in a much older 

 formation. It is interesting to note also, that the genus 

 Baiera, as limited by Heer, which appears in such develop- 

 ment in the Jurassic, associated with Salisburia, makes its 

 first appearance in our Upper Barrens along with Saportaea, 

 which we may consider as the ancestor of the Jurassic forms 

 of Salisburia. 



There are two important plant-bearing horizons in the 

 Upper Barrens. The lowest, is the shale which forms the 

 roof of the Waynesburg coal. This contains all the spe- 

 cies which have ascended from the Coal Measures proper, 

 along with many new forms. The second horizon is that 

 of the Washington Coal, where we find all the Coal Meas- 

 ure species (with the exception of Neuropteris hirsuta) to 

 have disappeared, and note the first occurrence of Callip- 

 teris conferta, Sphenopteris coriacea and others. Hence 

 the evidence of the Permian age of this series of strata, 

 lying above the Waynesburg Sandstone, is not at all weak- 

 ened by the presence of characteristic Coal Measure forms. 



The evidence from animal life is not weighty, but so far 

 as it goes it is in favor of the Permian age of the strata in 

 question. The limestones and shales affording the animal 

 forms found, which are mollusks, and bivalve crustaceans, 

 appear to have been deposited in fresh water, and this ac- 

 counts for the uncertain character of the evidence. Among 

 them we find species of the Gypris and Estlieria very 

 closely allied to those of the Trias. A univalve mollusk 

 also, of almost microscopic proportions, is very abundant 

 in certain layers. 



