THE PERMIAN SYSTEM DEFINED. 
139 
various structure ; rendering, in fact, the Zechstein itself a mere subordinate 
member of a vast cupriferous series. Subordinate, however, as it is in some 
tracts of Eussia, the Zechstein is so magnificently displayed in others, in masses 
of both limestone and gypsum, that it more than rivals the finest sections of that 
deposit, whether in the Hartz or in Thuringia. We object, however, to a litholo- 
gical name, hitherto reserved for one portion only of a complicated series ; and as 
the Germans have never proposed a single term for the whole group, which is 
based upon the rohte-todte-liegende and is surmounted by the Trias, we have 
done so, simply because we first found in Eussia the requisite union of proofs. 
We will not occupy time in showing, that the English synonym “ Magnesian 
Limestone ” is a term, the employment of which could only have led to false in- 
ferences ; for our readers who have followed us already know, that both the Devo- 
nian and Carboniferous rocks of this country contain large and continuous masses 
of magnesian limestone, often indeed more dolomitic and magnesian than the 
limestone of the rocks we are about to consider. 
For these reasons, then, we were led to abandon both the German and British 
nomenclature, and to prefer a geographical name, taken from the region in which 
the beds are loaded with fossils of an independent and intermediary character ; 
and where the order of superposition is clear, the lower strata of the group being 
seen to rest upon the Carboniferous rocks. 
And now a word or two upon the fossils. Neither German nor English geolo- 
gists have yet proved that the Zechstein or Magnesian Limestone contains within 
it a Flora of its own ; few distinct and well-characterized species having been 
found in the Kupfer schiefer and Zechstein of Germany, and none having been 
detected in the Magnesian Limestone of England. A few species of Calamites and 
Ferns, with fucoid-like plants, are, indeed, cited in the tabular list forming part ot 
a recent work which has just fallen into our hands'. The geological habitat 
assigned to several of these German plants — “ Zechstein-Sandstein ” — may, how- 
ever, be offered as another valid reason for the use of a general name, as applied 
to this group. 
We may add, that even whilst we write, the high authority of M. Adolphe Bron- 
gniart has confirmed our early impression of the intermediary character of the 
■ Gea Von Sachsen. Dresden and Leipsick, 1843, in which a commentary by Dr. Adolphe Kurze, with 
figures of two plants, is quoted. See also Munster’s Beitrage, Part I. pi. 4. fig. 5. Some of the species 
referred to in the ‘ Gea Von Sachsen’ are unpublished. 
