272 Murchison on the Permian System, 



Morris, who had previously examined them, it appears certain, that 

 whilst all the forms indicate a continuation of vegetable life of the same 

 nature as that which prevailed during the carboniferous era, there 

 are a few species (Neuropteris temifolia Lepidodendrom elonyatum, 

 and Catamites SuckoviiJ which are identical with carboniferous plants, 

 and not one which can be compared with a triassic plant.* 



The results of the inquiries of the botanists, the authors conclude 

 by remarking, are therefore completely in accordance with those 

 of the palaeontologist. They clearly prove that the Permian system 

 is the uppermost stage of that long Palaeozoic series, which, com- 

 mencing with the lowest Silurian rocks, presents a connected suc- 

 cession of animal and vegetable life, the last traces of which passed 

 away with the termination of the strata under review. Until 

 Russia was explored, the upper member of these ancient rocks 

 had scarcely afforded a trace of terrestrial plants. Neither in the 

 British Isles nor in Germany had there been found more than one 

 or two species of land plants in deposits of this age, not one of 

 which has yet been fully identified or described. Now in reference 

 to the Russian species, such of them as had been previously alluded 

 to by other writers were placed by some in the carboniferous rocks, 

 by. others in the New Red Sandstone. f Our sections, however, 

 have shown that neither of these views is correct ; and as the Russian 

 plants to which we have called attention, occur for the most part in 

 strata distinctly overlying beds containing the fossils of the Zechstein, 

 it is clear that certain red sandstones, marls and conglomerates, 

 above that rock, belong to our Permian group, are wholly distinct 

 from the Trias, and are truly Palaeozoic. 



We repeat, therefore, that we have now adduced ample botanical 

 as well as zoological and stratigraphical evidence to vindicate the 



* The species of plants, ten or twelve in number, which have been found in the 

 Kupfer schiefer or the sandy beds associated with the Zechstein in Germany, are 

 chiefly marine fucoids, and have been termed Caulerpites. According to M. 

 Adolphe Brogniart, the only terrestrial plants of the German strata are the 

 Teniopteris Echardi (Germar), and a Neuropteris mentioned by Naumann, which 

 not being determined must be considered doubtful. 



f See a very recent memoir by M. Yasikoff, " Bull, de Moskou," 1843, part ii. 

 p. 237, in which he refers an interesting portion of the Permian rocks described 

 by us upon the Kama, and between that river and the Sok, either to the New Red 

 Sandstone or the Carboniferous Limestone. 



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