Geological researches in China, Mongolia, and Japan, during the years 1862-1865.

120 APPENDIX.
but associated with these are a few pinfne of different form-much more elongated and acute-scarcely
differing from those of a European Jurassic species (P. lancolotus, Lind.), still the evidence of identity
is much stronger in regard to the former species than the latter.
From Pyiinsz' we have a fine Pecopteris, with the falcate pinnules-so characteristic of the Mesozoic species, and indeed very accurately copying the form of P. Whitbiensis, a European Jurassic
species-but unfortunately the strata which contain this fossil have been much metamorphosed, the
coal converted to anthracite, and the nervation of the fern has been entirely obliterated, while the
outline remains distinct.
Probably it will be found as difficult,-or rather as impossible, in China, as it has been in this
country, to identify all the subdivisions of the Mesozoic strata discernible in Europe; yet we shall
doubtless gather there new proofs of the constancy of the order of sequence in geological history, and
new evidence of the stability of the foundations on which geology, as a science, rests.
I have under my eye, as I write this letter, four collections of fossil plants which, though from very
widely separated localities, are curiously linked together. They are:1st. Fossil plants, Cycads and Conifers, collected by myself from the gypsum formation (Triassic)
at Abiquiu, New Mexico. Of this collection the most conspicuous and interesting plant is Otozamites,
Macombii, N.
2d. A collection of fossil plants-Cycads and Ferns, received through Prof. Whitney from Sonora,
Mexico, where they occur with coal strata and Triassic Mollusks. In this collection Otozamites,
Macombii is associated with Strangerites magnifolia, Rogers, Pecopterisfalcatus, Emm, and other
plants occurring abundantly in North Carolina.
3d. A collection of fossil plants-Cycads, Conifers, and Ferns, from N. Carolina and Virginia, including beside the last two mentioned, and many others which are new, several species, apparently
identical with European Triassic plants-of the genera Haidingera, Gutbiera, Laccopteris, &c., and
among other Cycads, Podozamites Emmonsii, N.
4. The collection made by yourself in China-Cycads and Ferns-in which one of the most distinctly
marked plants is P. Emmonsii.
In regard to the American localities cited above, there is, perhaps, no good reason for our withholding assent to the conclusion that the rocks furnishing the fossil plants are Triassic, but, when we
remember how much difference of opinion there has been, and indeed still is, upon this subject, even in
the light of large collections of fossils, we can hardly with propriety offer even a conjecture as to the
precise age of the Chinese coal strata.
To recapitulate-one species of Podozamites, contained in the collection is apparently identical
with an American Triassic species; the other more resembles a European Jurassic plant. The
Pterozamites resembles both Triassic and Jurassic species, but is identical with neither.
The Pecopteris has certainly a remarkable likeness to P. Whitbienszs, which occurs both in the
Liassic and Oolitic floras; and it is not yet certain that it is not also found in the Carolina and
Richmond coal basins.
The Sphenopteris and Hymenophyllites are altogether new, and suggest no affinities of value in
this connection, while the Taxites, Equisetites, &c., are too obscure to afford us any help.
Yours respectfully,
J. S. NEWBERRY
PTEROZAMITES SINENSIS, Newb.
PLATE IX, Fig. 3."
Pt. fronde pinnata, parva, pinnis linearibus patentissimis integris, sub -approximatis vel remotis, ssepe curvatis,
basi integris, apice rotundatis, nervis distinctis sequalibus simplicibus, rachi longitudinaliter striata.
This is a very neat and well-marked, though miniature species of Pterozamites, having the general
aspect of Pt. Oeynhausianus, Goepp., but being less than half the size of that species, and the
pinnee are not at all decurrent on the rachis.
Perhaps of all known species Pt. linearis, of Einmons (Manual of Geol. fig. 194), from the Trias
of North Carolina, most resembles this plant; but in that the pinna are much more crowded.