166 PPvOCEEDIKGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. character of its flora. Among the ferns, the Pecopterids are wanting or very rare, as they are in all the Lower Carboniferons of Europe ; the different forms of Cyclopterids and of the fine-leaved Sphenopterids, on the contrary, are very frequent and characterize the fern-flora of this period. In the Coal-measures, on the contrary, the genera Neuro- ^teris and Pecopieris (including Cyatlieites and Aletlio])teris) are deve- loped in a variety of species, and appear everywhere in great abund- ance. Lepidodendron extends through the Lower and Middle Car- boniferous, but on the whole is more abundant in the former, while the Sigillarice, which play so important a part in the Coal-measures, are almost entirely wanting in the Lower Carboniferous. In fact, the whole flora of the Lower Carboniferous period must have had a different aspect from that of the Coal-measures, although it con- sisted of the same families and, in a great measure, of the same genera. If we now glance once more over the Lower Carboniferous strata of Bear Island, we cannot fail to recognize a striking resemblance between them and the formations of the same age in Europe, espe- cially in the south of Ireland. We may classify them in the follow- ing manner. p o a Q ID o 1-q Bear Island. South Ireland. Other localities. III. Mill- stone-grit stage. Siliceous schists. Posidonomya- shales and coal. Culmiferous in Devon ; Millstone-grits, Upper Greywacke and Posi- donomya-iiii^leii in the Harz, Silesia, and Mo- ravia. II. Moun- tain-Lime- stone stage. Productus- and Spirifer- limestone. Limestone formation with Producttts and Spirifer. Burdie House ; Momitain Limestone and shales in Silesia; Hainichen, Ebersdorf, Artinsk, Pe- trowskaja,&c.in Russia ; Parry Island, Spitzber- gen. I. Ursa stage. Cyatho'p'hyllum- limestone. Carboniferous shale with Cyathophyllum. Barnstaple. Sandstones and shales with plants. Yellow Sandstone with plants. Greywacke of the Yosges and the southern Black Forest ; Marwood plant- bed (?), St. John's, in Canada ; Sandstone of Melville Island, Cats- kill and Chemung ? Doubt- ful. Devo- nian. Russian-Island Limestone. Upper Old Red. Red shales. Old Red. Gypris-shtAeB of Saalfeld. The Coal-measures are wanting in Bear Island, as in Spitzbergen;
