Permian Formations of Kansas — Prosser. 151 
any species characteristic of the Permian of the old World, and 
does not signify a Permian age for the Onaga (Elmdale) beds."* 
The importance of the above reference to the Dunkard 
formation will be appreciated when it is recalled that in 1880 
professors William M. Fontaine and I. C. White described 
the flora of the Upper Barren Coal Measures (now called 
the Dunkard formation) of West Virginia and southwestern 
Pennsylvania and in conclusion stated that : 
"To sum up finally the evidence derived from all sources, we 
find ourselves irresistibly impelled to the conclusion, that the * * * 
Upper Barrens of the Appalachian Coal Fields are of Permian 
age."t 
Tbe fauna of the Dunkard formation is very small and 
does not afford conclusive evidence as to its age but the 
flora has been recently re-examined by Dr. David White 
who corroborates the earlier conclusions of Fontaine and 
I. C. White. In the lower part of the Dunkard formation 
is the lower Washington limestone, which at the typical 
locality at Washington in southwestern Pennsylvania occurs 
117 feet above the top of the Waynesburg coal or base of 
the Dunkard. Dr. David White draws the following con- 
clusions regarding the age of the Dunkard formation : 
"It appears that the beds below the Lower Washington lime- 
stone can not yet be regarded as conclusively referable to the Roth- 
liegende, though they contain a flora which is certainly transitional. 
The re-enforcement of this flora at the levels of the Washington and 
Dunkard coals by the more important and distinctly characteristic 
Rothliegende species * * * seems to fully justify the reference 
of the latter to the Rothliegende, the lower boundary of which 
may probably be drawn as low as the Washington limestone, which 
is as yet the lowest observed Callipteris horizon. Further search 
in the floras of the lower beds of the Dunkard and in the Monon- 
gahela is necessary before the upper boundary .of the Coal Meas- 
ures can be definitely ascertained. The flora of the upper por- 
tion of the Dunkard is to be compared with those of the Stockheim 
and Cusel beds in Germany and of the series in the basin of the 
Brives in France. * * * The reference of the greater part of 
the Dunkard to the Lower Rothliegende appears to be well founded; 
but it seems to the writer as probable that the plants of the Upper 
Dunkard or of the lowest, of the terranes of western Europe that 
are now generally classed as Rothliegende are hardly of so late a 
date as the flora of the Artinsk stage of Russia."* 
* U. S. Geal. Surv., Bull. No. 211, Nov., 1903, pp. 115-116. 
t Second Geol. Surv. Pa., PP., p. 119. 
* Bull. Geo!. Soc. Amer., vol. 14, March, 1904, pp. 541, 542. 
