: 
4 
a 
a 
J. S. Newberry on the Coal Formation of China. 153 
from those of a European Jurassic species (P. lancolotus Lind.). 
Still, the evidence of identity is much stronger in regard to the 
former species than the latter. 
From Piyunsz we have a fine Pecopterts with the falcate 
pinnules so characteristic of the Mesozoic species, and, indeed, 
very accurately copying the form of P. Whitbiensis, a Euro 
Jurassic species; but unfortunately the strata which contain this 
fossil have been much metamorphosed, the coal converted to 
anthracite, and the nervation of the fern has been entirely 
obliterated, while the outline remains distinct. 
Probably it will be found as difficult—or rather as impossible 
—in China, as it has proved in this country, to identify all the 
subdivisions of the Mesozoic strata discernible in Europe. Yet 
we shall doubtless gather there new proofs of the constancy of 
the order of sequence in geological history, and new evidence of 
the stability of the foundations on which geology as a science 
rests. 
I have under my eye, as I write this letter, four collections of 
fossil plants, which, though from very widely separated locali- 
ties, are curiously linked together. They are,— 
ist. Fossil plants,—Cycads and Conifers,—collected by my- 
self from the “Gypsum Formation” (Triassic) at Abiguiu, New 
Mexico. Of this collection the most conspicuous and interest- 
ing plant is Otozamites Macombii N. : 
2d. A collection of fossil plants—Cycads and ferns—received 
through Prof. J. D. Whitney from Sonora, Mexico, where they 
occur with coal strata and Triassic mol ‘ 
In this collection Otozamites Macombit is associated with Stran- 
geriies magnifolia Rogers, Pecopteris faleatus Emm., and other 
plants occurring abundantly in North Carolina. | 
d. A collection of fossil plants—Cycads and ferns—from N. 
Carolina and Virginia, including, besides the last two mentioned, 
and many which are new, several species apparently identical 
With European Triassic plants, of the genera Haidingera, 
bieria, Laccopteris, &c. ; “a among other Cycads, Podozamites Em- 
monsi N, 
4th. The collection made by yourself in China—Cycads and 
ferns—in which one of the most distinctly marked plants is 
P. Emmonsii. 
In regard to the American localities cited above, there is per- 
haps no good reason for our withholding assent to the conclu- 
Sion that the rocks furnishing the fossil plants, are Triassic, but 
