336 
SILUEIA. 
[Chap. XIII. 
Permian series in both Cumberland and Westmoreland — a feature almost 
entirely wanting in the range of the group from the Wear to Nottingham. 
Permian Fossil Remains. — The fauna and flora of the Permian rocks are, as 
before stated, essentially palaeozoic ; for, whilst in great measure they are spe- 
cifically distinct from those of the Carboniferous system, the amount of agree- 
ment in the two groups is surprising when we reflect upon the phenomena 
adverted to in the opening of this Chapter, of great physical revolutions which 
pretty generally affected the known surface of the earth at and before the close 
of the preceding or Carboniferous era. Those disruptions, therefore, however 
violent and extensive, were not universal, but were, we may suppose, so accom- 
panied by new physical conditions as to occasion the destruction of many species 
of plants and animals. 
1. Flora. — The Permian flora has not yet been so developed in the British 
Isles as to show in what degree it differs from that of the Carboniferous group, 
to which, in fact, it everywhere bears a resemblance ; Mr. Howse, indeed, has 
said that some of the species found in the red sandstones of Tynemouth are 
identical with Coal-plants. At Ashby de la Zouch, Sternbergia has been de- 
tected, together with silicified wood, by the Rev. W. H. Coleman ; whilst the 
researches of the Geological Survey have shown that much of the red rock of 
the Central Counties, formerly called New Eed Sandstone, is of Permian age, and 
that among these masses must be included the rock of Allesley near Coventry, 
which has afforded many silicified stems of Plants. Professor Sedgwick* long 
ago pointed out the traces of Calamites in the Lower Red Sandstone, and 
various specimens collected by him and other geologists belong certainly to Car- 
boniferous genera, as in other countries ; but scarcely any of those which have 
fallen under my observation are sufficiently well preserved to afford specific 
characters. In those beds, however, which are subordinate to the Magnesian 
Limestone, the forms are so well preserved that there is no difficulty in distin- 
guishing them, as in the accompanying figures of two fragments of plants found 
in the Marl-slate, from Professor King's ' Monograph of Permian Fossils,' 1848. 
In certain foreign tracts, however, which have been examined in detail, the 
Permian strata contain many more Plants. The sandstone of Lodeve, before 
adverted to, affords, according to Ad. Brongniart, Ferns of the genera Sphe- 
* Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 344. Calamites occur also near Exhall, and in the Magnesian Lime- 
stone near Sunderland and the Marl-slate near Tynemouth. 
Fossils (84). Permian Plants and- Polyzoan. 
1. Ullmannia selaginoides, Sternberg. 2. 
Neuropteris Huttoniana, King. Both are 
from the Marl-slate of Durham. The first has 
also been detected, with other fossil plants, in 
the Permian shales of Westmoreland, which 
occur in the middle of the series (see p. 331). 
3. Fenestella retiformis, Schlotheim; Mag- 
nesian Limestone of Humbleton Hill. (The 
figures 1 and 3 are much reduced.) 
