338 
SILUEIA. 
[Chap. XIII. 
formis, with Callipteris (Neuropteris) conferta, Odontopteris obtusiloba, Peco- 
pteris Gcepperti, Morris and Brongn., Adiantites prisca, Fisch., Gleichenites 
Goepperti, Fisch., and Calamites gigas, Brongn., are so widely diffused and so 
clearly recognized in many countries as of Permian age, that they may truly be 
considered types (Leit-Pflanzen). To these may be added Sphenopteris erosa 
and S. lobata as being also very characteristic. It is indeed admitted that this 
flora is, to a great extent, composed of the same families and genera as that of 
the Carboniferous epoch, and that Ferns and Calamites prevailed equally in both 
periods ; yet, when we come to the details, about eight per cent, only of the 
Permian Plants are found to be specifically the same as those of the Carbo- 
niferous era; whilst the Psaromtes are, according to the late distinguished 
botanist Robert Brown, Permian types only. 
Again, while the Permian flora is generically connected with that of the ante- 
cedent but distinct formation, none of its Plants save one, Voltzia heterophylla, 
is known to have lived on into the succeeding or Triassic formation, or base of 
the Secondary rocks. 
After balancing the whole of the botanical evidence, Goppert concludes, with 
Brongniart and Morris, that this flora, whether composed of the Plants of the 
Roth-liegende, or those of the Zechstein and overlying beds in Russia, differs 
from all other fossil floras, and marks strikingly the close of the Palaeozoic times, 
of which it retains the family impress, whilst it is rigidly separated from all the 
vegetable products of Secondary age. 
2. Fauna. — The chief Permian animal-remains bear a strong resemblance to 
their congeners of the Carboniferous era. When the work on Russia was 
written, my companions and myself were not aware of more than 166 Permian 
species ; but, by the publication of the works of Geinitz, von Schauroth, and 
others, in Germany*, and of King, Howse, and Kirkby in England t, this number 
has been increased to 350 and more ; still it is small in proportion to that of the 
preceding or Carboniferous epoch, about 1100 species of animals obtained from 
the Carboniferous formations having been already described. 
The Permian limestones of England, Ireland, Germany, and Russia, are often 
rich in the remains of minute animals of the Rhizopodous and Crustacean 
classes, and which are not, in many cases, far removed from Carboniferous 
forms : 34 species belonging to these classes have been described. The plate 
illustrating M. Richter's memoir on the Thiiringian Zechstein, in the 7th volume 
of the Journal of the German Geological Society, presents a characteristic group 
of these little fossils %. There is, however, a tiny creature not shown there, 
which was first noticed by Schlotheim under the name of Serpula pusilia. This 
has been shown by Rupert Jones § to be a Rhizopod (as Prof. King had sug- 
gested). It occurs in countless numbers in the black Zechstein of the Voigt- 
land, and in the Magnesian Limestone of Sunderland, of Nosterfield in York- 
shire, and of Tyrone. 
The Polyzoa and Corals have the aspect of the Palaeozoic types, the small 
Cup-coral Calophyllum apparently showing the quadripartite arrangement of 
* Geinitz, 'Die Versteinerungen des Deutschen \ Compare the Ehizopoda and Entomostraca 
Zechsteingebirges,' 1828 ; ' on Conularia Holle- figured and described by Eupert Jones in King's 
beni,' Zeits. Deutsch. Geol. Gesells. vol. v. p. 465, Monog. Pal. Soc. 1848, by Eeuss in the Jahresb. 
and Steinkohl. Sachsens ; ' Die animalischen Ue- Wetterauisch. Ges. 1851, and by Eichter, loc. tit. ; 
berreste der Dyas,' Leipsic, 1861. The memoirs also the Entomostraca from Eussia, Keyserling, 
of von Schauroth (Zeits. Deut. Geol. Ges. vol. vi. Schrenk's Eeise arkt. Ural, and the memoirs by 
p. 539; and vol. viii. p. 211) have been published Jones and Kirkby in the Transact. Tyneside Nat. 
since the issue of the first edition of this work, Club. vol. iv. pp. 122-171. 
and have added many new species. § Journ. Geol. Soc. Dublin, vol. vii. p. 73. 
t Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ; Quart. Journ. Geol. 
Soc. ; Trans. Tyneside Nat. Club ; &c. 
