﻿HEER ON THE ANTHRACITE PLANTS OF THE ALPS. 97 



logical results founded on fossil plants, seeing that they may have 

 grown at very different levels above the sea and may have been car- 

 ried from a great distance by rivers or sea-currents, he does not re- 

 flect that the same is true of animals J ; and also that the mode of 

 preservation and other circumstances will show whether or not the 

 plants have travelled from a distance. When, as in the London 

 Clay, we find only single specimens of fruits, we have good reasons 

 for surmising that they have come from a distance ; but when the 

 delicate parts of plants are well preserved, the leaves uninjured and 

 still adhering to the stems, and spread out upon the rock as those in 

 the anthracitic schists are, we cannot believe that they have been 

 transported far, and this is rendered still more improbable when they 

 occur in great quantities and over a wide district. 



List of Anthracitic Plants in the Zurich and Basle Museums. 



[The species marked thus (*) have not previously been observed 

 in the Anthracitic schists ; those marked (f) have not yet been found 

 in Coal-measures ; those without a mark are true Coal-plants. Those 

 described by Unger from the Anthracitic schists of the Austrian 

 Alps are marked (Aus.).] 



(*)1. Sphenopteris tridactylites, Brongn. Hist. PL Foss. 

 pi. 50 (?). 



Petit-Cceur ; Col de Balme. 



The specimens are not perfect enough for accurate identification, 

 but by the form of the leaves seem to belong to this species. The 

 pinnae are in pairs ; the pinnules standing apart, and almost at right 

 angles to the long leaf-stalks. The latter are rather smaller than 

 those figured by Brongniart, but of the same appearance : they are 

 also pinnate, the lower leaflets dividing into three, while the upper 

 have their edges entire. 



(*)2. Neuropteris Loshii, Brongn., pi. 73. 

 Erbignon, in the Valais. 



3. Neuropteris gigantea, Sternb. 



Petit-Cceur ; Erbignon ; the most abundant species there. 



The venation is well preserve^ in many specimens. The midrib 

 ceases in the middle of the leaflet ; the side-ribs run in slightly curved 

 lines to the rim, and bifurcate. 



% So also the drift-wood, washed ashore in Iceland, &c., and often quite 

 covered with Bivalves, Serpulse, and other marine animals, has frequently travelled 

 from a great distance. With seaweed also great quantities of salt-water animals 

 are transported from distant regions. But altogether the contrary obtains with 

 land-animals and land-plants, which in the water fall to the bottom and perish ; 

 the drift-wood shows no longer any flowers and leaves, for all these softer parts 

 of the plant have disappeared, and the stronger woody part only remains. 



