- a. Avicula socialis.
- b. Side view of same.
Characteristic of the Muschelkalk.
The abundance of the heads and stems of lily encrinites, Encrinus liliiformis (or Encrinites moniliformis), show the slow manner in which some beds of this limestone have been formed in clear sea-water.
Fig. 323.
- a. Voltzia heterophylla. (Syn. Voltzia brevifolia.)
- b. portion of same magnified to show fructification. Sulzbad.
Bunter-sandstein.
The Bunter-sandstein consists of various coloured sandstones, dolomites, and red-clays, with some beds, especially in the Hartz, of calcareous pisolite or roe-stone, the whole sometimes attaining a thickness of more than 1000 feet. The sandstone of the Vosges, according to Von Meyer, is proved, by the presence of Labyrinthodon, to belong to this lowest member of the Triassic group. At Sulzbad (or Soultz-les-bains), near Strasburg, on the flanks of the Vosges, many plants have been obtained from the "bunter," especially conifers of the extinct genus Voltzia, peculiar to this period, in which even the fructification has been preserved. (See [fig. 323.])