PERMIAN FLORA. 
393 
Fig. 428. 
neuil in Russia, and of MM. Geinitz and von Gutbier in Sax¬ 
ony, to be, with a few exceptions, distinct from that of the 
coal. 
In the Permian rocks of Saxony no less than 60 species of 
fossil plants have been met with. Two or three of these, as 
Fig. 42T. Calamites gigcts^ Sphenopteris erosa^ and S. lo~ 
hata^ are also met with in the government of 
Perm in Russia. Seven others, and among 
them Neuropteris Loshii^ Pecopteris arhorescens^ 
and P. similis^ and several species of Walchia 
(see Fig. 426), a genus of Conifers, called Ly- 
Cardiocarpon ot- copodites by some authors, are said by Geinitz 
common to the coal-measures. 
Quy. i diam. Among the genera also enumerated by Colonel 
Gutbier are the fruit called Cardiocarpon (see Fig. 427), 
terophyllites^ and Annularia^ so characteristic of the Carbon¬ 
iferous period; also Lepidodendron^ which 
is common to the Permian of Saxony, Thu¬ 
ringia, and Russia, although not abundant. 
Noeggerathia (see Fig. 428), the leaves of 
which have parallel veins without a mid¬ 
rib, and to which various generic syno¬ 
nyms, such as Cordaites^ Plabellaria^ and 
Poacites^ have been given, is another link 
between the Permian and Carboniferous 
vegetation. Coniferse, of the Araucarian 
division, also occur; but these are like¬ 
wise met with both in older and newer 
rocks. The plants called Sigillaria and 
StigmaHa^ so marked a feature in the 
Carboniferous period, are as yet wanting 
in the true Permian. 
Among the remarkable fossils of the 
Rothliegendes, or lowest part of the Per¬ 
mian in Saxony and Bohemia, are the silic- 
ified trunks of tree-ferns called generically 
Psaronius, Their bark was surrounded by 
a dense mass of air-roots, which often con¬ 
stituted a great addition to the original 
stem, so as to double or quadruple its diamet&r. The same 
remark holds good in regard to certain living extra-tropical 
arborescent ferns, particularly those of New Zealand. 
Upon the whole, it is evident that the Permian plants ap¬ 
proach much nearer to the Carboniferous flora than to the 
Triassic; and the same may be said of the Permian fauna. 
* Murchison’s Russia, vol. ii., PI. A, fig. 3. 
17 * 
Noeggerathia cuneifolia. 
Brongniart.* 
