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GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



the oldest beds. Catamites cannceformis, Schl., and Neuropteris 

 Loshii, Br., even appear in the Transition strata ; and Cyatheites 

 Schlotheimi, St. sp., one of the most abundant species in the anthra- 

 citic schists, together with Neuropteris tenuifolia, Schl. sp., or species 

 closely resembling these two, according to Bunbury and Sharpe, are 

 even found in the Silurian formation of Oporto*. Stigmaria, Lepi- 

 dodendra, and the Odontopteris Brardii, Br., abound principally in 

 the lower Coal-beds, and also occur in the anthracitic schists. 



This anthracitic formation is widely extended : we find it not only in 

 the South of France, in Savoy, and in the Valais ; but Escher has also 

 detected it in Engelberg and at Todi, in Canton Glarus ; and it may 

 probably be traced to the Austrian Alps. Long ago it was found on 

 the borders of Styria, Salzburg, and Carinthia, between Gmiind and 

 Turrach ; and lately M. von Morlot has discovered it in Carniola. 

 The researches of Unger (upon an ancient plant-bed on the Stang- 

 Alp in Styria, 1843) prove incontestably, that the anthracite of the 

 Austrian Alps is contemporaneous with ours. There also the dark, 

 plant-bearing schists repose on talc-slate and gneiss, and contain nu- 

 merous land-plants, without the slightest trace of marine animals or 

 vegetation. Of the forty-four species which Unger has described 

 from thence, thirteen are identical with species in our anthracitic 

 beds : of the remaining thirty-one, twenty-eight are true Carbonife- 

 rous plants ; and as twelve of the thirteen which are identical with 

 ours are also known Carboniferous plants, there are in all forty 

 true coal-plants in the Styrian anthracites. Among these we have 

 five Catamites, Stigmaria Jicoides, St. sp., Annularia fertilis, St., 

 thirteen species of Sigillaria, and four of Lepidodendron, with the 

 exception of Sigillaria parallela, Ung. (which seems peculiar to the 

 locality) ; all are species found in the Coal of Europe and partly also 

 of North America, and are looked on as forms characteristic of that 

 formation. 



Thus we have in the anthracites of Styria and the Eastern Alps 

 seventy-nine species in all, of which only eight are peculiar to it, and 

 about seven are doubtful ; while sixty-four distinctly agree with true 

 Coal-plants. This agreement holds not only when we compare the 

 united flora of the anthracites with Coal, but also when that of the 

 separate localities is compared with the Carboniferous flora: thus, 

 for instance, the majority of the plants found at Petit-Cceur agree on 

 the one hand with those of the other localities, and on the other with 

 those of the Coal. This I consider to be of importance, since it 

 might otherwise be supposed, that the enigmatical supraposition of 

 the plant-beds at Petit-Cceur upon the Lias might be explained by 

 considering those anthracitic beds to have been erroneously referred 

 to the same formation as the others. 



When we compare this flora with that of the Lias, we perceive a 

 total difference. Already in the Permian system new species and 

 distinct genera occur which are wanting in the Coal : still more is 

 this the case in the Trias. Not only are the species all distinct, but 

 all those forms which had played the most important part in the Coal- 

 * [Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. v. p. 147, note.— Ed.] 



