182 Geological Gleanings. 



tip to the present time it has been as much as I could do to defend 

 the innovations which I had already made, even though the Irish- 

 geologists generally, and especially Mr. Haughton and Mr. Jukes, 

 who, I trust, will favour us with their views, have all arrived at 

 similar conclusions. 



" No means that could have been adopted to ascertain the age of 

 these plants have been neglected ; and besides the attention paid 

 to their examination by Professor Haughton, I have consulted M.. 

 Adolphe Brongniart, as already mentioned, whose opinion may be 

 seen in a translation of a letter which I lately communicated at 

 one of the Scientific Meetings of the Royal Dublin Society. I 

 may observe, that as I was not looting for plants with a view of 

 including the Old Red Sandstone within my line of boundary, I 

 iid not originally discover them so low down as my friend Mr. 

 Jukes has since done ; besidesthat colour being the order of the day, 

 I limited my researches mainly to the yellow beds, discontinuing, 

 my search upon reaching the underlying red beds. But I shall 

 be ever ready to hear with pleasure of their discovery to the very 

 bottom of these rocks, and to recognise them, with Mr. Jukes' and 

 MivHaugh ton's concurrence, on my Geological Map, as a group 

 of the Carboniferous system. I may here observe, that I do not 

 wish to be understood as aiming at a subversion of the Devonian 

 system, whether occurring in Devonshire or elsewhere, my present 

 observations being strictly limited to the Old Red Sandstone of 

 the south of Ireland." 



It may be doubted if the evidence above given is sufficient fully 

 to establish the conclusions reached, though it shews a remarka-- 

 ble extension of the coal flora. Both in America and Europe 

 rocks containing plants of carboniferous genera are known to be 

 associated with Devonian animal remains. The species,however, are 

 different, and perhaps we should conclude rather that the peculiar 

 type of flora having its largest development in the coal me sures, 

 is that of the palaeozoic period generally, than that we should ex- 

 tend the carboniferous system downward as far as this peculiar 

 flora extends. Plants closely allied to those of the carboniferous- 

 system have been found by the Canadian Survey in beds as low as 

 the horizon of the Oriskany Sandstone, the base of the Devonian 

 in America, and under marine fossils, altogether distinct from 

 those of the carboniferous limestones. 



Earthquakes in Italy, — In these quiet regions, we do not read- 

 ily realise the shaky character of those portions of the world 



