368 FLOKA OF THE SECONDARY SERIES. 



relative numbers of other families of plants, in each of the 

 successive geological epochs, which are thus connected with 

 our own, by a new and beautiful series of links, derived from 

 one of the most important tribes of the vegetable kingdom. 



SECTION III. 



VEGETABLES IN STRATA OF THE SECONDARY SERIES."^ 



Fossil Cycadece. 



The Flora of the Secondary Seriesf presents characters^ 

 of an intermediate kind between the Insular vegetation of 

 the Transition series, and the Continental Flora of the Ter- 

 tiary formations. Its predominating feature consists in the 

 abundant presence of Cycadeee, (see PI. 1, Figs. 33, 34, 35,) 

 together with Coniferee,^ and Ferns.§ (See PI. 1, Figs. 37, 

 38, 39.) 



M. Ad. Brongniart enumerates about seventy species of 



* See P). 1, Figs. 31 to 39. 



+ M. Ad. Brongniart, in his arrangement of fossil plants, has formed a 

 distinct group out of the few species which have been found in tlie Red- 

 sandstone formation (Gres bigarre) immediately above the Coal. In our 

 division of the strata, this Red-sandstone is included, as an inferior mem- 

 ber, in the Secondary series. Five Algffi, three Calamites, five Ferns, and 

 five Coniferae, two Liliacese, and tliree uncertain Monocotyledonous plants 

 form the entire amount of species which he enumerates in this small 

 Flora. 



See also JiBger ober die Pflanzenversteinerungcn in dem Bausandstcin von 

 Stuttgart, 1827. 



t We again refer to Witham's Account of Conifers from the Lias, in his 

 observations on Fossil Vegetables, 1833. 



§ A very interesting account, accompanied by figures, showing the in- 

 ternal structure of the stems of fossil arborescent Ferns of the Secondary 

 period, is given in Cotta's Dendrolithcn, Dresden, 1832 ; these appear to be 

 chiefly from the New red sand-stone of Clicmnitz near Dresden. 



