GOEPPEKT — ^LIASSIC PIANTS. 19 



question, and the lowest division of the Caucasian shales, to belong 

 to the lowest division of the " Brown Jura " of the Germans, or the 

 Lower Oxfordian stage; especially also as Abich had referred the 

 Imerethian coal-formation to the same geological horizon as that of 

 another coal-formation, occurring on the north side of the same 

 mountain-district, in Mingrelia, near Goudau, between the Terek 

 and Kuban on the Elbrous, which he had described as of Lower 

 Jurassic age.] 



A second communication of fossil plants from Herr Abich in July 

 1848, in better preservation and greater variety than those before 

 mentioned, comprised many species known as characteristic on ac- 

 count of their wide distribution; so that I was enabled to speak 

 more positively about them ; and I was obliged to refer the plants 

 under notice, not to the Middle or Brown Jura, but only to the Black 

 Jura or Lias. There were species also which I have since examined, 

 and now proceed to notice : — 



1. Tmiiopteris vittata, Brongn., also occurring in the Lias near 

 Fantasie, and on the Theta near Bayreuth, and Yeitlahm near 

 Culmbach in Bavaria, Halberstadt, Wienerbruck, Gaming, Hinterholz 

 in Upper Austria, Steierdorf in the Banat (according to Andrae), in 

 the Lias at Hor in Sconia, -in the Lower Oolite at Scarborough, and 

 also at Whitby, which locality is reckoned by Bronn (Leth. Geogn. 

 vol. ii. 1851) sometimes for Lias, sometimes for Upper Lias. 



2. A Tceniopteris, which I had observed among the fossils from 

 Gaming, communicated to me in 1843 by Haidinger, and at that 

 time recognized by me as Liassic, and, on account of the strong 

 middle nerve and stalk, determined to be either an old frond of the 

 former or a new species, which I provisionally named T. crassipes. 

 In the mean time it has been described and figured by C. von Ettings- 

 liausen * as T. asplenioides, so that this latter name must have pre- 

 ference. 



3. Alethopteris Whithiensis, Goepp. "Widely distributed ; found in 

 the Lias in all places mentioned under No. 1, and at Lyme Regis as 

 well as at Whitby and Scarborough in England ; and at Richmond 

 in Virginia, according to Marcou. 



4. Equisetites. Identical with the species which C. von Ettings- 

 hausen has since named E. Gamingensis, from the Lias of Gaming, 

 Upper Austria. 



5. Nilssonia elongata, Brongn. Fragments of a leaf. N. elongata 

 occurs in the Lias at Hor, Sconia, and in the Lias near Bayreuth. 



Lastly, also, the coal from this locaKty is very similar in external 

 appearance to the Liassic coal of Gaming and Bayreuth, and is 

 distinguished from that of the Coal-measures in its planes of 

 bedding being usually without the mineral charcoal generally present 

 in the latter, and there belonging partly to Conifers {Araucarice), 

 partly to Oalamites or even Stigmarice. Hence it appears that this 

 Caucasian formation is of Jurassic age, and should rather be referred 

 to the Black Jura or Lias than to the Brown or Middle Jura, although 



* Beitrage zur Flora der Vorwelt. Vienna, 1851, p. 31, pi. IL figs, 1, 2, pi, 12, 

 fig. 1 ; Naturwiss. Abhandl. Haidinger, vol. iv. part 1. p. 95. - 



