1855.] SYMONDS — PENDOCK. MERIAN VORARLBERG. 451 



Fossils are very abundant, but difficult to work out, the sandstone 

 being extremely brittle. The suite of fossils now exhibited to the 

 Society comprise: — 1. Two sipecimens of Posidonomi/a minuta (re- 

 taining portions of the shell) from calcareous nodules in the marls 

 above the conglomerate : — 2. Specimens of the osseous conglomerate, 

 which forms a thin bed, not 2 inches thick, about the middle of the 

 sandstone series ; and detached portions of the Ichthyodorulites and 

 other osseous remains, which are abundant in this ''bone-bed" : — 

 3. A series of detached fish-teeth, from the sandstones and the con- 

 glomerate, some of which have been submitted to Sir P. Egerton, 

 who believes them to belong to a new species of Acrodus : — 4. Seven 

 specimens of Plant-remains ; these are found in the bottom beds at 

 the quarry, where apparently the sandstone becomes finer and less 

 gritty and conglomeratic : the sandstone in which these plants are 

 imbedded contains numerous dispersed particles and patches of car- 

 bonaceous and coaly matter*. Many plants are also scattered 

 through the different beds, but are all much more imperfect than 

 those from the lower bed. 



Note on the Plant Remains. — The fossil plants have been kindly 

 examined by Dr. Hooker and Mr. Bunbury. Dr. Hooker considers 

 the larger specimen as probably referable to Equisetites columnaris, 

 a plant of the Keuper near Wurtemburg, and which was discovered 

 by Sir Roderick Murchison at Brora ; it has also been found abun- 

 dantly in the Oolites of Yorkshire, but had not been hitherto met 

 with in the Keuper Sandstone of England. The smaller specimens 

 Dr. Hooker refers doubtfully to Catamites arenaceus^ a plant of the 

 Keuper in Germany, and which is scarcely distinguishable from 

 various fossils of the same and other formations ; its botanical cha- 

 racters being vague and unsatisfactory. Considering how imperfect 

 our knowledge is of either of the above genera, and that several fossils 

 referred to Catamites have been supposed, with much probability, to 

 be merely the casts of hollow stems, or piths of plants. Dr. Hooker 

 suggests that no reliance should be placed in these approximate identi- 

 fications, and adds that it is quite possible to conceive that Catamites 

 and Equisetites are parts of one and the same plant. 



Mr. Bunbury refers all the specimens to Catamites arenaceus ; 

 and rightly observes that the larger specimen presents none of the 

 characteristics of Equisetites columnaris : this, however, Dr. Hooker 

 is rather inclined to attribute to the imperfection of the specimen. 



2. On the St. Cassian Beds between the Keuper and the Lias 

 in the Vorarlberg Alps. By Prof. Merian. 



[Extract of Letter to Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S.] 



I have lately visited, with my friend Escher von der Linth, the Alps 

 of the Vorarlberg, and the neighbourhood of the Lake of Lugano and 

 the Lake of Como. In the Vorarlberg we found immediately under 



* [The specimens of this coaly matter which have been examined under the 

 microscope do not offer any traces of organic structure. — Ed.] 



