683 Professor Sedgwick and R. I. Murchison, Esq., on the 



DEVONSHIRE. OTHER LOCALITIES. 



Pecopieris lonchitica. Foss. Flora, PI. 153. Upper coal measures, Salop. " One of the 



P. blechnoides ^ lonchitica. Ad. commonest of the plants of the coal forma- 

 Brongn.,P1.84.f. 1-7. Scheuch- tion, as the opposite list of authorities indi- 

 zer. Herb.Diluv.,p. 74. Filicites cates, occurring in great numbers in a variety 

 lonchtticus. Schloth. Flor. der of mines in France, Bohemia, Silesia, and 

 Vorw., Tab. 11. f. 32. Aletlio- England; very abundant in the culm mea- 

 pteris lonchitidis et A. vulgatior. sures of Pembroke." 

 Sternb. Flor. der Vorw., Tab. 55. 

 This species is perhaps the most abundant of 



the Bideford Plants. 

 Pecopteris muricata. Ad. Brong. Veg. Foss., Coal Mines of Argin, near Valenciennes, and 



PI. ^5. fig. 3 and 4. near Wittin, Saxony. 



Poacites cocoina. Foss. Flora, PI. 142 B. Coalbrook Dale and other Salopian coal-fields, 



and also in the Lancashire coal near Bolton ; 

 a very remarkable species of palm. (See 

 Lindley and Hutton.) 



In addition to these plants clearly exhibiting the characters on which fossil species are deter- 

 mined, (here is a considerable quantity of impressions of coarse, sedge-like, or grassy vegetables, 

 which, though not easily defined, are apparently identical with fragments very common in the 

 Pembrokeshire coal-field. We would here also call attention to the fact, that every species of 

 these Devon plants which is well preserved has at once been identified by Professor Lindley with 

 well-known and previously-published vegetable forms of the true carboniferous era. Among 

 these, the Pecopteris lonchitica and Neuropteris cordata may safely be cited as among the most 

 common and characteristic plants of nearly all the European coal-fields. 



On the whole, considering that the culmiferous rocks of Devon form a 

 distinct group, with a peculiar mineral type (unlike the older groups, but 

 nearly resembling the culmiferous beds of Pembrokeshire) — that they overlie 

 ail the other groups, and are overlaid by no rock newer than the new red 

 sandstone — that, notwithstanding the paucity of fossils in the black limestone 

 (in which respect it resembles the calp of Ireland), there are in it one or two 

 species not separable from known mountain-limestone fossils, — and, finally, 

 that the flora of the upper culms, as far as it has been ascertained, agrees spe- 

 cifically with the kno\vn^o7'a of the carboniferous period; we think we have 

 strong direct evidence to establish our position, '' that the upper culm strata 

 of Devon are the geological equivalents of the ordinary British coal-fields." 

 Our conclusion is drawn from direct evidence, and can only be assailed by 

 direct conflicting evidence, of which we have not yet discovered any trace. 



Besides the plants of the strata which we refer to the true carboniferous 

 series, other fossil vegetables have been discovered since our first visit to De- 

 vonshire, in the sandstone beds of Sloly quarries, north of Barnstaple, which 

 are near the base of the fifth group of our North Devon section ; and, there- 

 fore, far below the culmiferous series. 



This disrovprv was first communicated to us bv Maior Hardinp-. of llfra- 



