Proceedings of the British Association, 129 



to be understood, that from the moment when organic remains were 

 appealed to as the true ground of comparison between the rocks 

 of different ages and in different countries, there had been no differ- 

 ence of opinion amongst geologists upon the broad principles of their 

 science. 



Mr. Murchison announced the general results obtained by M. 

 Goppert from the formation of a tabular view of the fossil plants which 

 had been discovered up to the present time all over the Globe. Mr. 

 Murchison stated that this general resume of the fossil Flora of 

 the Globe would be published by MM. Goppert and Bronn, in a simi- 

 lar form to Mr. Morris's British Catalogue ; the number of fossil 

 plants known to M. Adolphe Brongniart in 1836 had been 527, in 

 the new list they amounted to 1,792 ; and as in the 80,000 plants 

 now known to exist in different parts of the Globe, a large proportion 

 consists of fucoids and fungi, which would disappear in the process of 

 fossilization, it would be seen that the total number of known fossil 

 species bore a considerable proportion to those now existing. Their 

 numerical distribution in the different rocks is stated by M. Goppert 

 to be as follows : — 



Palaeozoic, 52 



Carboniferous, ., 819 



Permian, ... . . ... ... ... ... ... 58 



Triassic, 86 



Oolitic, 234 



Wealden, 16 



Cretaceous, 62 



Tertiary, 454 



Unknown, ... 11 



Total, 1,792 



From this table it appeared, that the carboniferous group contained 

 more than half the known species of fossil plants, a remarkable cir- 

 cumstance when it was considered that the great herbivorous land 

 quadrupeds had no existence before the tertiary period. The small 

 number of plants in the cretaceous system was, no doubt, owing to 

 the depth of the sea in which those formations were deposited. 



Mr. Greenough stated that an enumeration of all the known fossil 

 plants had been published by M. Keferstein, arranged in the same 



