752 STRATIGRAPHICAL GEOLOGY. — [Boox VI. 
Accordingly we find that the rocks are on the whole singularly 
barren of organic remains. From the rich faunas of the Silurian, 
Devonian, and Carboniferous systems we enter the Permian forma- 
tion and find only somewhere about 300 species of organisms. 
The Permian flora presents many points of resemblance to the 
Carboniferous.: According to Grand’Kury upwards of 50 species of 
plants are common to the two floras. Among the forms which rise 
into the Permian rocks and disappear there are Calamites Suckowii, C. 
approximatus, Asterophyllites equisetifornuis, A. rigidus, Pecopteris 
elegans, Odontopteris Schlotheimit, Sigillaria Brardi (and others), Steg- 
maria ficoides, Cordaites borassifolius, &c. Others which are mainly 
Permian are yet found in thehighest coal-beds of France, e.g. Calamites 
gigas, Calamodendron striatum, Arthropitus ezonata, Teenopteris 
abnormis, Walchia pinniformis, &e. But the Permian flora has some 


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Fic. 355.—Prrmian Mo.uvscs. 
a, Strophalosia Goldfussi (Munst.) (enlarged); b, Productus horridus (Sow.); ¢c, Bake- 
vellia tumida (King); d, Schizodus Schlotheimii (Geinitz). 
distinctive characters ; as the variety and quantity of the ferns united 
under the genus Callipteris, which do not occur in the Coal-measures, 
the profusion of tree-ferns (Psaronius, of which 24 species are de- 
scribed by Géppert, Protopteris, Caulopteris, &c.) and of Hquisetites, 
and the abundance of Walchia pinniformis and W. filiciformis. The 
most characteristic plants throughout the German Permian 
groups are Odontopteris obtusiloba, Callipteris conferta, Walchia 
pinniformis, and Calamites gigas. ‘The last representatives of the 
ancient tribes of the lepidodendra, sigillarioids, and calamaries 
appear in the Permian system. 
The impoverished fauna of the Permian rocks is found almost 
wholly in the limestones and brown shales, the red conglomerates 
and sandstones being, as a rule, devoid of organic contents. A few 
! See Goppert’s “ Die Fossile Flora der Permischen Formation,” Cassel, 1864-5. 
