224 Scientific Intelligence. 



SCIENTIFIC INT E LLIGENCE. 

 I. Geology and Natural History. 



1. The Age of the Plant-bearing Shales of the Richmond 

 Coal Field ; by Edward W. Berry (communicated). — In the 

 introductory paragraph of a recent article* describing an inter- 

 esting new calamite type, N~eocalamites Knowltoni, from the 

 Richmond coal field, I stated that the containing beds are of 

 Rhsetic age as determined by Fontaine, f and not Keuper as stated 

 b} T Stur,J Ward,§ Zeiller,|| and others. This statement ,was 

 uncritical since it was based upon an only tentative examination 

 of the question and an acceptance of some misleading identifica- 

 tions of previous students of our Triassic floras. 



Shortly after the appearance of the article in question Professor 

 Zeiller wrote to me questioning this statement of age and calling 

 attention to certain continental floras in France, Lorraine and 

 Saxony, both undescribed and recently described, that show 

 similarities with the flora of the Richmond coal field. Unfor- 

 tunately the latter flora is greatly in need of a modern systematic 

 revision and the rich flora of Lunz in Austria with which Stur 

 compared it has never been described or illustrated. This is also 

 true of the large collections of Keuper plants from Thale, Harz, 

 brought together by the late Professor Richter of Quedlinburg 

 and recently acquired by Professor Nathorst for the Royal 

 Natural History Museum of Stockholm. 



Upon the receipt of Professor Zeiller's letter, I communicated 

 with Professor Nathorst, who has devoted so many years to the 

 elucidation of Rhsetic floras, since there is no comparative 

 material in this country of either Rhsetic or Keuper plant life. 

 He has had the goodness to make comparisons between the flora 

 described from the Richmond coal field and extensive undescribed 

 collections from Lunz in Austria and Thale in Saxony, in his 

 possession. His opinion is entirely in accord with that of Profes- 

 sor Zeiller and he confirms for the most part the comparisons 

 with the undescribed Lunz flora made by Stur. 



The opinion of the two foremost students of fossil floras, both 

 especially familiar with the Rhsetic flora, must be considered as 

 settling the Keuper age of the Virginia Triassic plant-beds, since 

 the evidence upon which this opinion is based seems ample and 

 conclusive. 



Whether or not the whole thickness of our so-called Newark 

 system of the Atlantic border is to be referred to the Keuper 

 cannot be conclusively demonstrated at the present time. In this 



* Berry. Botanical Gazette, vol. liii, pp. 175-180, pi. 17, 1911. 



T Fontaine, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. vi, 1883. 



% Stur, Verh. kk. Geol. Reichs., vol. x, pp. 203-217, 1888. 



§ Ward, Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. iii, pp. 23-31, 1891. 



|| Zeiller, Ann. Geol. Universel, vol. v, p. 1247, 1888 ; vol. viii, p. 888, 1891. 



