258 



"1 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



recently indebted for an interesting illustrative series of 

 fossil shells and vegetables. Vide pi. 14, fig. 1. 



Neuropteris. 



Among the illustrative specimens above alluded tOy 

 are a number of vegetable fossils, numbered from 30 to 

 39 ; they include several masses of bituminous shale, in- 

 closing numerous impressions of leaves, of which we have 

 enumerated five distinct layers on the surface of a single 

 piece, which displays also on the reverse side impress- 

 ions of finely fibrous wood. These impressions of leaves 

 are very distinct, and readily referable to the genus Neu- 

 ropteris, and are distinguished from all other species of 

 this genus by the extreme minuteness of the nervures, 

 being almost invisible without the aid of a glass, seen 

 through which, the entire leaf appears to consist of ner- 

 vures. 



In other respects this species bears no remote resem- 

 blance to the Neuropteris macrophylla, and N. flexuosa, 

 of Ad. Brongniart, Hist, des Veg. Foss. pi. 65. 



We are informed by Mr Miller, that these fossils oc- 

 cur on the top of the Alleghany mountains, lying imme- 

 diately on the surface of a bed of bituminous coal, and 

 that marine shells were found both above and below them. 



The anthracite coal measures of the Lehigh and 

 Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, are generally referred by 

 geological observers to the grauwacke series ; and the 

 bituminous coal measures of Alleghany, Ohio, &c. to the 

 secondary formations^ — the rocks would lead us to the 

 former opinion, the fossils, in some instances to the latter^ 

 at least so far as they have been examined from both lo- 

 calities. 



I have been indebted to our associate Dr J. L. Mar- 

 tin, for an interesting collection of fossil plants, consisting 

 principally of Lycopodiolites of Sternberg, Striaticul- 

 mus, &c., from his coal mine, in the western termina- 



