ON TUE FAUNA AND FLORA OF THE TRIAS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 307 
The overlying grey and red marls and the red marls below the sand- 
stones have furnished no traces of past life in the Trias of Leicestershire, 
except ‘casts of the spreading leaves’ of Voltzia sp., a Conifer, discovered 
by Mr. W. J. Harrison, F.G.S. At this horizon the deposits are highly 
saliferous, containing gypsum and pseudomorphs of salt crystals. The 
whole formation is also charged with sulphate of baryta and sulphate 
and carbonate of lime, the water-supply obtained from .this horizon 
possessing a high percentage of these substances. It is from the Lower 
Keuper (Waterstones) that water is principally obtained locally and 
utilised. 
In the Tea-green Marls the fauna—no plant-remains having been 
discovered so far—approaches that of the Sandstone beds at the base of 
the Upper Keuper. It was in these that Mr. Harrison was also fortunate 
enough to discover the wing of an insect ; but he informed the writer that 
it perished soon after exposure to the atmosphere. 
The fauna here appears to indicate more lacustrine conditions, as the 
only fish that is abundant belongs to a genus probably Semionotoid or 
perhaps Paleoniscoid. Selenite and salt crystals occur at this horizon, 
and ripple-marks and rain-pittings are also met with. 
The marls pass up insensibly into the Rhtic beds above, being at 
one time considered their lowest member. The best paleontological break, 
however, occurs above the Tea-green Marls, where physical conditions 
again change. 
The Flora and Fauna of the Keuper in Leicestershire. 
Upper Keuper Sandstone. 
* The numbers in parenthesis refer to the bibliography page. 
+ Specimens marked thus are represented in the Leicester Corporation Museum (= L.M.) 
~ This nomen nudum was invented in 1849 for specimens which are probably nothing more than 
inorganic casts of tracks and galleries, the work of Worms or Crustacea, 
§ Recorded in 13th Report, Leicester Museum, as Vemacanthus, 
Genera and Species Locality Reference Remarks 
PLANTA. 
THALLOPHYTA, 
Alge . . . Leicester (well-bor- | * (1856)' pp. 371,373 | Fig. 1 (a section) includes a 
ing) thin ‘black carbonaceous 
PYERIDOPHYTA band, with supposed Algz.’ 
EQUISETALES. 
Equisetites sp. Shoulder- of- Mutton | Zbid., p. 373 * : — 
Hill railway cut- 
ting 
(?) SP 28 ” ” ” |T LM. . s "1 No: ee Several casts of the 
stem of an equisetaceous 
| plant, but exhibiting no 
} | distinct leaf-sheath. 
(?) ty hatin ie - | Westcotes . 7 LM. . | Xo. 1907 This specimen is 
probably equisetaceous, but 
LYCOPODIALES, the leaf-sheath is indistinet. 
(2) Lycopodiaceous Dane Hills. Si i EM as | No. Z5. A fragment bearing 
rootlet cf. Sigmarites 
sp. 
CONIFER, 
Volizta, sp. . . 
(?) ” po? , , 
| 
‘ 
Shoulder- of - Mutton 
Hill railway  cut- 
ting 
Leicester . = 
(1856)' p.873 . | 
(1904) p. 8 and (1905)" 
p. 14 (reprint) 
no rootlet scars, but dichoto- 
mising, asin Stigmarian root- 
lets or rhizomes. 
B.M. 24, 190, labelled Gor- 
gonia keupert, 
x2 
