Chap. XV.] 
DEVONIAN KOCKS IN SAALFELD ETC, 
387 
augment in quantity and size in the overlying or younger strata. These consist, 
first of reddish and grey, and then of greenish shale, of considerable thickness, 
which on the right bank of the Saal extend from the cliffs of Bohlen by the 
Pfaffenberg to the Kleitsch Hill, and finally, at the foot of the Rothenberg, are 
surmounted by ferruginous micaceous flagstones, containing a great quantity of 
fossil Plants. I direct particular notice to this section, because it exhibits, more 
clearly than any other known to me, the extent to which the Land Vegetation 
augments as we ascend in the Devonian rocks. 
The lowest Plants, as discovered by M. Eichter in the Cypridina-schists, con- 
sist, according to Professor Unger, to whom they were referred, of many species 
belonging to new or undescribed genera, and even to new families. Some 
of them are considered to be intermediate between Ferns and EquisetaceEe ; 
others seem to be primitive forms of Cycads and Conifers, possessing characters 
of which (says the Professor) no one has as yet had an idea ; and one presents 
such a singular organization, that he terms it the 1 prototype of the Gymno- 
sperms ' ! This is the genus Aporoxylon of Unger, a Coniferous Tree which 
has only simple wood-cells, without the disks usual in plants of this order. In 
some of these Conifers the resin even has been preserved. The above are figured 
in his important memoir *, where also are enumerated from the same beds : — 
several species of the Calamiteae — of the genera Haplocalamus, Calymma, Cala- 
mopteris, Calamosyrinx, and some of a more solid structure (Calamopitys) \ a 
few forms of the genera Cyclopteris, Sphenopteris, Dactylopteris ; besides seve- 
ral genera founded on the stems of plants. There is also a Lepidodendron, L. 
nothum, probably identical with one from Caithness (see p. 269, Foss. 73. f. 4). 
This section is still further interesting in demonstrating a passage upwards 
into other and overlying beds beneath the Rothenberg — viz. into the micaceous 
sandstones and flagstones, which, on account of their flora, must be classed with 
the Lower Carboniferous rocks. Such, for example, are Calamites transitio- 
nis, Gopp., Megaphytum (Rothenbergia) Hollebeni, Cotta, with Knorria, &c. 
(plants which are well known in the Rhenish Provinces of Prussia, where they 
invariably occupy the Lower Carboniferous rocks, and never occur, like the 
group above mentioned, in the Devonian, properly so called). Here, then, on 
the edge of the Thuringerwald, M. Richter has collected data to prove, by fossil 
Plants alone, a succession from the Devonian to the Carboniferous period. 
Having called the attention of that author, on the spot, to the importance of 
applying these facts respecting the distribution of fossil Plants to the tracts 
between Saalfeld and Schleitz, in parts of which such remains were for the first 
time observed in one of my excursions f> I learn from him that he has con- 
siderably extended the area which is occupied by the Lower Carboniferous rocks 
in that country, as defined by its terrestrial vegetation. In fact, the ground 
between Saalfeld and Schleitz is all laid down in the geological maps of Saxony 
under one colour, or as ' older grauwacke ' ; whereas a very large portion of it 
must now be assigned to the Lower Carboniferous formation. When will my 
valued friends, the mineralogists and geologists of Germany, abandon a word 
which has led to such endless confusion ? I cannot but regret that a work of 
such ability as one issued by Geinitz should bear the title of the ' Fossils of 
the Grauwacke-formation/ under which name he groups together a vast series, 
including Silurian, Devonian, and even Carboniferous rocks. 
* ' Beitrag zur Palaontologie des Thiiringer- t The observation was made by M. Eichter and 
Waldes,' by K. Eichter and Franz Unger, in Baron von Baumbach, in company with Professor 
Denkschr. der Math.-Nat. Classe der kaiserl. Morris and myself. 
Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Wien, vol. xi. 1856. 
2 c 2 
