plants, shells, fishes, and reptiles of this system appear to partake more of the character of those in the older carboniferous, than newer oolitic deposits. The few plants which occur in the rotheliegende are of the carboniferous, and especially Lepidendroid type. Products, so common in mountain limestone, occur in the zechstein with terebratulæ, and spirifera abundantly. Fishes of the genus palæoniscus here occur for the last time, in ascending the series of strata; above come in Labyrinthodon Thecodontosaurus, &c. These interesting relations appear in the following table, which also contains the names of some fossils, which are found in only one of the three systems:—
| Belemnites. Ammonites. |
Oolitic Formation. | Zamia. | ||
| Ceratites. | Labyrinthodon Trigonia. |
Keuper. | Pterophylium. Equisetum columnare. |
Voltzia |
| Muschelkalk. | ||||
| Red sandstone. | ||||
| Palæoniscus. Producta. Cyathocrinus. |
Zechstein. | Lopidodendron. Ceinamites. |
||
| Marl slate. | ||||
| Rotheliegende. | ||||
| Orthoceras. Goniatites. |
Coal Formation. | Sigillaria. |
According to the organic remains, the lower half of these rocks must be ranked with the carboniferous, the upper with the oolitic rocks: but, by its own mineral characters, it is one great series of deposits which hap-
