565 



strohilus of a species o^ Echinostachys ; (E. oblongits) figured by 

 M. Ad. Brongniart as peculiar to the gres bigarre ; a portion of a 

 flabelliform palm leaf; parts of dicotyledonous stems with their 

 bark ; a broad leaf of some monocotyledon and a species, probably 

 of Convallirites , (Brogn). 



As these fossils bear no affinity to the well-known plants of the 

 Keuper, but have on the contrary a strong resemblance to the 

 Flora of the " Gres bigarre, " offering in one instance a specific 

 identification with a vegetable peculiar to that formation, the au- 

 thors have no doubt that this light coloured sandstone of Worces- 

 tershire forms part of the same deposit. 



By sections extending from Warwick to the north-west, the sand- 

 stone of Guy's Cliff and Leamington is shown to be of the same 

 age as that of Bromsgrove, being also a soft, light coloured, 

 slightly micaceous and thick-bedded sandstone : and rising up 

 immediately from beneath the red marl, it cannot be confounded 

 with the upper or Keuper sandstone, which at Rowington Tunnel 

 and Shrawley Common is seen to overlie the great mass of red 

 marl in manner before described. 



Portions of bones of saurians abound in what the workmen call 

 the dirt bed of the Warwick sandstone ; but the fragments are so 

 mutilated, and generally in such a decomposed state, that they can- 

 not be identified. Plants also occur, but from a similar cause their 

 recognition is very difficult. In addition to the fossils collected 

 by Dr. Buckland, the authors have found teeth of fishes. 



As no attempt has been made to prove that the animal found in 

 Guy's Cliff is of the same species as either of the Phytosauri o^ the 

 Keuper of Wirtemberg ; the authors throw it out as a probable 

 conjecture, that if ever accurately determined, it will prove of the 

 same species as one of the saurians in the bunter sandstein of the 

 continent. 



The sandstone of Warwick is therefore identified with the rock 

 of Bromsgrove and Ombersley in Worcestershire, and Hawkstone 

 and Grinshill in Shropshire, which has been shown to be a portion 

 of the red sandstone representing the grds bigarre or bunter sand- 

 stein. 



Although assiduous search has been made to discover a calca- 

 reous stratum between the two formations above described, which 

 might represent the " Muschelkalk," no traces of such a rock have 

 been detected except in Shropshire, where Mr. Murchison has noticed 

 a band of very impure limestone, occupying the same interme- 

 diate position, but as yet no organic remains have been observed in 

 it. 



On the whole the authors conclude, that the most exact parallel 

 exists between the upper formations of the new red system of 

 England, and those of a large part of France, where the muschel- 

 kalk being also absent, the marnes irrisees and gres bigarre pass 

 into each other in the manner above described*. 



* See the writings of M. Dufr6noy and M. Elie de Beaumont. (Memoires 

 pour servir a une description geologique de la France, vol. i, p, 313 et seq.) 



