556 



PERMIAN FLORA. 



[Ch. XXIII 



The country of Mansfeld, in Thuringia, may be called the classic 

 ground of the Lower New Eed, or Magnesian Limestone, or Permian 

 formation, on the Continent. • It consists there principally of, first, the 

 Zechstein, corresponding to the upper portion of our English series ; and, 

 secondly, the marl-slate, with fish of species identical with those of the 

 bed so called in Durham. This slaty marlstone is richly impregnated 

 with copper-pyrites, for which it is extensively worked. Magnesian lime- 

 stone, gypsum, and rock-salt occur among the superior strata of this 

 group. At its base lies the Rothliegendes, supposed to correspond with 

 the Inferior or Lower New Red Sandstone above mentioned, which occu- 

 pies a similar place in England between the marl-slate and coal. Its 

 local name of " Rothliegendes," red-Iyer, or " Roth-todt-liegendes," red- 

 dead-Iyer, was given by the workmen in the German mines from its red 

 color, and because the copper has died out when they reach this rock, 

 which is not metalliferous. It is, in fact, a great deposit of red sand- 

 stone and conglomerate, with associated porphyry, basaltic trap, and 

 amygdaloid. 



Permian Flora. — We learn from the recent investigation of Colonel 

 von Gutbier, that in the Permian rocks of Saxony no less than sixty 

 species of fossil plants have been met with, forty of which have not yet 



Fig. 461. 



Walchia piniformis, Sternb. Permian, Saxony. (Gutbier, pi. x.) 

 a. Branch. b. Twig of the same. c. Leaf magnified. 



been found elsewhere. Two or three of these, as Catamites gigas, Sphe- 

 nopteris erosa, and S. lobata, are also met with in the government of 

 Perm in Russia. Seven others, and among them Neuropteris F> 

 Los hi i, Pecopteris arbor escens, and P. similis, with several 

 species of Walchia (see fig. 461), a genus of Conifers, called 

 Lycop>odites by some authors, are common to the coal- 

 measures. 



Among the genera also enumerated by Colonel Gutbier are 

 the fruit called Cardiocarpon (see fig. 462), Asterophvllites, Cardiocarpon 



j a ? ■ i .';.-•? , .„ . 'Ottoiiis, Gutbier. 



and Anmdaria, so characteristic of the carboniferous period ; Permian, Sax- 

 also Lepidodendron, which is common to the Permian of ° ny ' * d ' am ' 

 Saxony, Thuringia, and Russia, although not abundant. Noeggerathia 



