HEER — CARBONIFEROUS FLORA OF BEAR ISLAND. 163 



for me to confirm this classification in detail. I have discussed it 

 more fully in my treatise, which will be published by the Swedish 

 Academy, and have illustrated the plants in fourteen plates. 



The YeUow Sandstone of Ireland is well known to lie immediately 

 under the Carboniferous Shale, which, in its turn, is covered by the 

 Mountain Limestone. It is regarded as the Upper Old Red, and, 

 as such, is classed with the Devonian. But the flora of the Yellow 

 Sandstones of Kiltorkan and the shales of TaUowbridge quite con- 

 tradict this classification. I owe to the kindness of Messrs. W. H. 

 Baily and Robert H. Scott a collection of plants from these localities, 

 which have enabled me to make a comparison. It contains, from 

 TaUowbridge, Calamites racliatus, Lepidodendron Veltlieimianum, and 

 Knorria acicidaris ; and, from the Yellow Sandstone of Kiltorkan, 

 Calamites radiatus, in large pieces, Cyclostigma Mltorkense, G. mi- 

 nutum, Lepidostrohus Baily anus, Schimp., Lepidodendron Velthei- 

 mianum, Stigmaria Jicoides, and Palceopteris hibernica, Forb. sp., to 

 which also Sp>henopteris Ilooken , and S. Humphriesiana may be added. 



The flora of TaUowbridge therefore, so far as it is known, agrees 

 verjr nearly with that of Kiltorkan ; and both of them coincide in 

 a remarkable manner with that of Bear Island ; for, of the ten 

 Irish species, five or six are common to the latter. Palceopteris hi- 

 bernica, of which beautiful fronds are found at Kiltorkan, has not 

 yet, it is true, been discovered in Bear Island ; but the nearly 

 allied Pala3opteris Roemeriana, Gopp. sp., has been found there ; Ca- 

 lamites, Lepidodendron, and Knorria are represented by important 

 common species ; and the two Cyclostigmata, which were formerly 

 known only from the south of Ireland, reappear in the distant Bear 

 Island. The complete agreement of such a relatively large number 

 of species at such far distant localities, these species being besides 

 of such frequent occurrence as to be true typical plants, leaves 

 hardly any doubt that these floras must have belonged to the same 

 epoch in time. 



We have already seen that the Bear-Island flora is so nearly re- 

 lated to that of the Mountain Limestone and the Millstone-grit, 

 that it must be classed with this and not with the Devonian. 

 Therefore the flora of Kiltorkan must also belong to the Lower Car- 

 boniferous, and we must draw the line of separation between the 

 Devonian and the Carboniferous below the Yellow Sandstone. It 

 follows necessarily that the overlying Carboniferous shales must 

 belong to the Lower Carboniferous, to which they are also more 

 nearly allied by their marine remains than to the Devonian, as appears 

 from the lists which Mr. Baily has published. The fish-remains from 

 Kiltorkan present the only difficulty ; for they agree more with those 

 of the Old Red : but so long as no species are found which are de- 

 cidedly identical with those of the Old Red of Scotland, these fish- 

 remains can by no means be said to contradict the classification 

 founded on the plants of the Yellow Sandstone of Kiltorkan, which 

 confirms the published views of Sir R. T. Grifiith, Prof. Haughton, 

 and Mr. Symonds. These fish- remains only show that some genera, 

 which were formerly regarded as belonging exclusively to the Old 



