120 APPENDIX. 



but associated with these are a few piafioe of different form — mlich more elongated and acute — scarcely- 

 differing from those of a European Jurassic species (P. lancolotus, Lind.), still th& evidence of identity 

 is much stronger in regard to the former species than the latter. 



From Pyiinsz' we have a fine Pecopteris, with the falcate pinnules — so characteristic of the Meso- 

 zoic species, and indeed very accurately copying the form of F. Whilbiensis, a European Jurassic 

 species — but unfortunately the strata which contain this fossil have been much metamorphosed, the 

 coal converted to anthracite, and the nervation of the fern has been entirely obli4;erated, while the 

 outline remains distinct. 



Probably it •will be found as difiScult, or rather as impossible, in China, as it has been in this 

 country, to identify all the subdivisions of the Mesozoic strata discernible in Europe ; yet we shall 

 doubtless gather there new proofs of the constancy of the order of sequence in geological history, and 

 new evidence of the stability of the foundations on which geology, as a science, rests. 



I have under my eye, as I write this letter, four collections of fossil plants which, though from very 

 widely separated localities, are curiously linked together. They are : — 



1st. Fossil plants, Cycads and Conifers, collected by myself from the gypsum formation (Triassic) 

 at Abiquiu, New Mexico. Of this collection the most conspicuous and interesting plant is Otozamites, 

 Macomhii, N. 



2d. A collection of fossil plants — Cycads and Ferns, received through Prof. Whitney from Sonora, 

 Mexico, where they occur with coal strata and Triassic Mollusks. In this collection Otozamites, 

 Macomhii is associated with Strangerites magnifolia, Rogers, Pecopteris falcatus, Emm, and other 

 plants occurring abundantly in North' Carolina. 



3d. A collection of fossil plants — Cycads, Conifers, and Ferns, from N. Carolina and Virginia, in- 

 cluding beside the last two mentioned, and many others which are new, several species, apparently 

 identical with European Triassic plants — of the genera Haidingera ,Guthiera, Laccopteris, &c., and 

 among other Cycads, Podozamites Emmonsii, N. 



4. The collection made by yourself in China — Cycads and Ferns — in which one of the most distinctly 

 marked plants is P. Emmonsii. 



In regard to the American localities cited above, there is, perhaps, no good reason for our with- 

 holding assent to the conclusion that the rocks furnishing the fossil plants are Triassic, but, when we 

 remember how much difference of opinion there has been, and indeed still is, upon this subject, even in 

 the light of large collections of fossils, we can hardly with propriety offer even a conjecture as to the 

 precise age of the Chinese coal strata. 



To recapitulate — one species of Podozamites, contained in the collection is apparently identical 

 with an American Triassic species ; the other more resembles a European Jurassic plant. The 

 Pterozamites resembles both Triassic and Jurassic species, but is identical with neither. 



The Pecopteris has certainly a remarkable likeness to P. Whitbiensis, which occurs both in the 

 Liassic and Oolitic floras ; and it is not yet certain that it is not also found in the Carolina and 

 Richmond coal basins. 



The Sphenopteris and Hymenophyllites are altogether new, and suggest no affinities of value in 

 this connection, while the Taxites, Equisetites, &c., are too obscure to afford us any help. 



Yours respectfully, 



J. S. NEWBERRY 



Pterozamites Sinensis, Newh. 



Plate IX, Fig. 3. 

 Pt. fronde pinnata, parva, pinnis linearibus patentissimis integris, sub-approximatis vel remotis, ssepe curvatis, 

 basi integris, apioe rotundatis, nervis distinctis sequalibus simplicibus, raobi longitudinaliter striata. 



This is a very neat and well-marked, though miniature species of Pterozamites, having the general 

 aspect of Pt. Oeynhausianus, Groepp., but being less than half the size of that species, and the 

 pinnas are not at all decurrent on the rachis. 



Perhaps of all known species Pt. linearis, of Emmons (Manual of Geol. fig. 194), from the Trias 

 of North Carolina, most resembles this plant ; but in that the pinniE are much more crowded. 



