PERMIAN PERIOD. 371 



hand, there were few Sigillarids. The Conifers were more varied : they included species 

 of Dadoxylon, Pinites, Ullmannia, etc. The genus Walchia, characterized by lax and 

 very short spreading leaves, began near the close of the Carboniferous period, but is 

 much more numerous in species during the Permian. It has been considered a Conifer; 

 but the fruit, according to Geinitz, is that of a Lycopod. Tree-ferns of the genus Psa- 

 ronius were common, as in the Upper Coal-measures. Fruits are described, by Geinitz, 

 of the genus Gulielmites, which he supposes to be of the Palm tribe. 



Fig. 692, pinnule or branchlet of a large frond of Neuropteris Loschii, a species com- 

 mon to the Permian and Coal-measures, as well also as Pecopteris arborescens, P. similis, 

 and some other plants; 693, a portion showing the venation. Fig. 694, a small part of 

 a specimen of Annularia carinata Sternberg; the stem is jointed, as in the Equiseta, and 

 gives off branchlets at the articulations; these branchlets are also jointed, and have 

 whorls of leaf -like appendages at the articulations. In 694, only the first joint and its 

 whorl are shown, of natural size; in 694 a, a branch is shown (of reduced size), consisting 

 of its several joints and whorls, but the natural termination is wanting. Fig. 695, Wal- 

 chia piniformis Sternberg. The figures are from the work of Geinitz and Gutbier on 

 the "Dyas " of Saxony. 



2. Animals. 



Corals of the Cyathophyllum family, Brachiopods of the genera Pro- 

 ductus, Spirifer, and Orthis, Pteropods of the genus Gonidaria, Ceph- 

 alopods of the genus Orthoceras, and Ganoid fishes with vertebrated 

 tails, give a Paleozoic character to the Fauna. But there are many 

 new features : among these, the most prominent is the appearance of 

 Crocodilian Reptiles of the tribe of Thecodonts — species having the 

 teeth set in sockets, as the name (from the Greek) implies. 



This transition-character is apparent also in the number of old ani- 

 mal as well as vegetable types that here nearly or quite fade out, — for 

 it is the period of the last of the species of Productus, Orthis, Murchi- 

 sonia ; nearly the last of the extensive tribe of Gyathophylloid corals, 

 which made coral reefs of far greater extent than those of modern 

 seas ; nearly the last of the extreme vertebrate-tailed (heterocercal) 



Fig. 696. 



Palaeoniscus Freieslebeni (XX)- 



Ganoid fishes. These groups had already dwindled much, before the 

 Permian period ; for some prominent Carboniferous genera, as the 

 Goniatites, do not reach into it. The old or Paleozoic world was pass- 

 ing by, while within it new types had come forth, prophetic of the 

 earth's brighter future. 



