152 J. S. Newberry on the Coal Formation of China. 
This conclusion is based on the entire absence of Carbonifer- 
ous plants from the collection; and the presence of well marked 
Cycads—species of Podozamites and Pterozamites—closely allied 
to, if not identical with, some heretofore found in Europe and 
America. 
I give below such descriptions of the several species contained 
in the collection as could be framed from the somewhat meager 
material submitted to me. Future observations made upon a 
larger number of more perfect specimens will be necessary be- 
fore questions of specific identity or difference can be definitively 
settled, but it is scarcely probable that any facts or specimens 
hereafter to be obtained will require a modification of the view, 
plants new to science, but the Pecopteris, Sph Pi m- 
ates, Plerozamites, &e., have a very familiar look; and in their 
resemblance to well known fo resh evidence of the 
monotony of the vegetation of the globe previous to the intro- 4 
duction of the angiospermous forests of the Cretaceous period. 3 
Whether the strata which have furnished these plants should 
be considered Triassic or Jurassic remains to be determined by 
future observations, as the fossils yet obtained can hardly be 
considered sufficient for the solution of that question. 
