Miscellanies. i399 



offered for sale. His principal botanical correspondents, as we are 

 informed by one of his friends, (who does not however, pretend to 

 remember them all,) were Dr. Bigelow, of Boston; Mr. Nuttall, Dr. 

 Beck, of Albany ; Dr. Torrey and Mr. Eddy, of New York ; Rev. ' 

 H. Steinhauer, of Bethlehem ; Mr. Schweinitz, Dr. Muhlenberg, 

 Mr. Elliott, of Charleston ; Dr. McBride, Mp. Le Conte, of Savan- 

 nah; Dr. Boykin, of Milledgeville; Dr. Baldwin, and Mr. Rafinesque. 

 If desired, a more minute description of the herbarium will be 

 furnished by Mr. Charles Pickering, of Philadelphia, to whose ex- 

 amination and judgment, this herbarium has been referred. 



3. The coal beds of Pennsylvania equivalent to the great secon- 

 dary coal measures of Europe. 



To Prof. SilUman. — At the ninety first page of the second edi- 

 tion of my Geological Text Book, (published last June,) I adduced 

 facts, in proof of the correctness of the heading of this article. 

 Since its publication, Mr. James Hall, adjunct professor in this in- 

 stitution, has made probably, the most extensive collection of veget- 

 able fossils in Pennsylvania, that has hitherto been made on this con- 

 tinent. It was the intention of Mr. Hall and myself to have deter- 

 mined the names of all which had been described by M. Brongniart, 

 and to have given lithographic figures of the remainder. But we 

 are prevented by other engagements. 



At present, I will merely gi^fe a list of the names of those which 

 we determined by the aid of M. Brongniart's figures and descrip- 

 tions, as far as his sixth number. I have now before me twenty three 

 ascertained species of ferns, from the coal mines of Pennsylvania, 

 which Brongniart has described, as belonging to the great secondary 

 coal formations of Europe, found in the secondary class of rocks 

 only. Hence the absurdity of denominating the Alleghany and Cats- 

 kill Mountains, transition. If organized remains are any evidence 

 of the equivalent characters of rocks, these mountains are surely se- 

 condary. They are the upper secondary of some distinguished Eu- 

 ropean geologists, the upper stratum of the lower secondary of oth- 

 ers; while others seem unwilling to admit a division of the secondary 

 class. 



It appears to me, ihat the Alleghany and Catskill Mountains may 

 be assumed, confidently, as the grand starting range for settling all 

 questions relating to the equivalent strata of the Eastern and Western 

 continents. I feel that I am fully supported in the position I have ta- 



