BUNBURY ON THE COAL FORMATION OF CAPE BRETON. 435 



are sufficiently M^ell preserved to be determined with tolerable cer- 

 tainty, 22 appear to be identical with British coal-plants ; 4 or 5 

 may be considered as varieties of British types ; 2 appear to be iden- 

 tical with European species, not yet discovered in Britain ; 8 only 

 are, as far as I yet know, peculiar to North America. It is also to 

 be observed, that the most common plants, and those which more 

 particularly give its character to this Flora, — Neuropteris cordata, 

 N. flexuosa, Pecopteris abhreviata, Lepidodendron elegans, — are all 

 of them English. Now, although it is certain that very many of the 

 recent plants growing in North America, about the latitude of Nova 

 Scotia, are identical with species of the north of Europe, yet I do 

 not believe that, on comparing the whole recent Flora of Cape Breton 

 with that of any part of Europe, we should find nearly so great an 

 amount of agreement as this. But the case becomes much more 

 remarkable, when we find veiy nearly the same assemblage of fossil 

 plants extending through the coal-fields of the United States nearly 

 to their southern extremity. In the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, 

 Mr. Lyell collected the following species, undistinguishable from those 

 well-known in Britain : — Neuropteris cordata ; N. cordata, var. an- 

 gustifolia ; N.Jlexuosa ; Pecopteris Cyathea ; Pecopteris ahhrevlata\ 

 P. pteroides ; Sphenophyllum Schlotheimii ; Lepidodendron obova- 

 tum ; X. aculeatum ? ; Pinnularia capillacea. In fact, all the species 

 obtained, in a satisfactory condition, from the anthracitic coal-field of 

 Pennsylvania, appear to be British. 



The following British species were procured by Mr. Lyell from 

 Frostburg in Maryland : — Neuropteris cordata ; N. gigantea (an 

 intermediate form between gigantea and fiexnosa, nearly agreeing 

 with a specimen from Manchester) ; Pecopteris arborescens ; P. ab- 

 breviata; Lepidodendron acideatum\ L. tetragonuin^ % \ Sigillaria 

 reniformis ; Catamites nodosus ; Asterophyllites foliosa ; A. tuber cu- 

 lata ; Asterophyllites (undescribed, but found in the Manchester coal- 

 field according to Mr. Binney) . 



The following are from the Ohio coal-field : — Neuropteris cordata ; 

 Pecopteris arborescens ; P. plumosa ; Lepidodendron obovatum ; 

 L. aculeatum ; L. Sternbergii ; Sigillaria tessellata ; 8. Murchisoni ; 

 Catamites approximatus -, C. Suckoivii ; Asterophyllites foliosa. 



Thus it appears that, of all the fossil plants which have hitherto 

 been procured from the carboniferous deposits of these regions, a 

 great majority are undistinguishable from British species ; whereas, 

 it is well known that the recent vegetation of Pennsylvania, Mary- 

 land and Ohio is altogether of a different type from that of Europe. 



From the coal-field of Indiana, Mr. Lyell brought in his last tour 

 Neuropteris cordata, Cyclopteris obliqua, and Lepidodendron ob- 

 ovatum. Even in Alabama, in lat. 33° 10^ N., he found that the 

 prevailing fossil plants were either identical with those of the Eu- 

 ropean coal-formation, or but slightly different ; and two at least are 

 common to Alabama and Cape Breton, namely Lepidodendron ele^ 

 gans and JBechera grandiSj var. tenuis. 



* Whether this be the true L, tetragonum or not, it accords with British 

 specimens. 



