506 
PALAEONTOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 
which in places underlies the Pittsburg coal, is also a mere compound of stems 
and leaves of this last species, and I have received from the highest coal bed 
of Kansas, which is considered by some geologists as belonging to the Permian 
strata, a large lot of specimens of the roof shale, which, like those from under 
the Pittsburg coal, contain leaves of the same Neuropteris hirsuta heaped in 
profusion, without any other species but N. Loschii. 
From the horizon of the Pittsburg coal, we have from Pennsylvania two re¬ 
markable species, whose discovery is due to the sagacious investigation of Rev. 
D. C. Moore, and which, by their characters, appear related rather to species of 
the Permian, or even of the Oolite, than to those of the Carboniferous epoch. 
One is the peculiar Neuropteris Moorii, Lesqx., Penn. Geol. Kept., p. 860, PI. 
xix, fix. 1,* related by the pointed form of its leaflets and their size to Pecop- 
teris Whitbiensis, LI. and Hutt., of the Oolite of England. The second is 
apparently a species of Schizoneura, a new genus of Schimper, represented as 
yet by only four species in the Trias and the Oolite of Europe. Our species 
is known only by small branches, one-fourth of an inch broad, striated length¬ 
wise, like those of a Sphenophyllum , articulated at short distances, bearing at 
the articulations whorls of ten to twelve oblanceolate obtuse flat leaflets, about 
one inch long, marked lengthwise by parallel thin veinlets. These leaflets ap¬ 
pear distinct or unconnected to their base, which is marked by small, circular, 
distinct scars. No trace of a vagina has been observed as yet. 
The presence of these peculiar plants in the higher Coal Measures of Penn¬ 
sylvania may not be more conclusive, as indicating a distinct geological horizon, 
than are the numerous remains of insects, crustaceans, etc., discovered in the 
nodules of Mazon creek, and which have as yet their relatives only represented 
in the Permian. But I desire to make here only a record of facts, according to 
our actual knowledge, in regard to the flora of the Coal Measures, and leave to 
future discoverers the task of obtaining more reliable data for a definitive con¬ 
clusion on the subject. 
The examination of the geographical distribution of the flora of our Car¬ 
boniferous strata, according to the suggestions of Prof. H. D. Rogers, in the 
preparation of the Pennsylvania Geological Report, proposes the solution of 
these three questions: 1st. What is the geological relation of our Coal Mea¬ 
sures with those of Europe, in considering the vegetable constituents of the 
strata in both continents ? 2d. From the same kind of researches, is the anthra¬ 
cite basin of Pennsylvania identical in its age and in the distribution of its 
measures with the great Apalachian bituminous coal basin of Ohio and Penn¬ 
sylvania ? And as a corollary : 3d. What is the geological relation of the sepa- 
*Prof. W. P. Scliimper has separated this species as the type of a new genus Lescuropteris , 
a separation already indicated by my remarks with the description of this species, loc. cit. 
