[FJ] Grey, “Journal of the Geological Society,” vol. xxvii.

1. Carboniferous Flora.

(1) Permo-Carboniferous Sub-Flora:

This occurs in the upper member of the Carboniferous system of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, originally named by the writer the Newer Coal-formation, and more recently the Permo-Carboniferous, and the upper beds of which may not improbably be contemporaneous with the Lower Permian or Lower Dyas of Europe. In this formation there is a predominance of red sandstones and shales, and it contains no productive beds of coal. Its fossil plants are for the most part of species found in the Middle or Productive Coal-formation, but are less numerous, and there are a few new forms akin to those of the European Permian. The most characteristic species of the upper portion of the formation, which has the most decidedly Permian aspect, are the following:

Dadoxylon materiarium, Dawson.
*Walchia (Araucarites) robusta, Dn.
*W. (A.) gracilis, Dn.
*W. imbricatula, Dn.
Calamites Suckovii, Brongt.
C. Cistii, Brongt.
*C. gigas, Brongt.
Neuropteris rarinervis, Bunbury.
Alethopteris nervosa, Brongt.
Pecopteris arborescens, Brongt.
*P. rigida, Dn.
P. oreopteroides, Brongt.
*Cordaites simplex, Dn.

Of these species, those marked with an asterisk have not yet been found in the middle or lower members of the Carboniferous system. They will be found described, and several of them figured, in my “Report on the Geology of Prince Edward Island.”[FK] The others are common and widely diffused Carboniferous species, some of which have extended to the Permian period in Europe as well. From the upper beds, characterised by these and a few other species, there is a gradual passage downward into the productive coal-measures, and a gradually increasing number of true coal-formation species.

[FK] 1871.

It is worthy of remark here that the association in the Permo-Carboniferous of numerous trunks of Dadoxylon with the branches of Walchia and with fruits of the character of Trigonocarpa, seems to show that these were parts of one and the same plant.

This formation represents the Upper Barren Measures of West Virginia, which are well described by Fontaine and White,[FL] and the reasons which these authors adduce for considering the latter equivalent to the European Permian will apply to the more northern and eastern deposits as well, though these have afforded fewer species of plants, and are apparently less fully developed.

[FL] “Report on the Permian Flora of Western Virginia and South Pennsylvania,” 1880.