[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Cyrtoceras depressum.] [Illustration: Fig. 75.--Walchia Schlotheimii.] The crystalline or concretionary limestone (No. 1) formation is seen upon the coast of Durham and Yorkshire, between the Wear and the Tees; and Mr. King thinks that the character of the shells and the absence of corals indicate a deposit formed in shallow water. The plants also found in some of the Permian strata indicate the neighbourhood of land. These are land species, and chiefly of genera common in the Coal-measures. Fragments of supposed coniferous wood (generally silicified) are occasionally met with in the Permian red beds of many parts of England. Among the Ferns characteristic of the period may be mentioned _Sphenopteris dichotoma_ and _S. Artemisiæfolia_; _Pecopteris lonchitica_ and _Neuropteris gigantea_, figured on pp. 143, 144. “If we are,” says Lyell, “to draw a line between the Secondary and Primary fossiliferous strata, it must be run through the middle of what was once called the ‘New Red.’ The inferior half of this group will rank as Primary or Palæozoic, while its upper member will form the base of the Secondary or Mesozoic series.”[52] Among the _Equiseta_ of the Permian formation of Saxony, Colonel Von Gutbier found _Calamites gigas_ and sixty species of fossil plants, most of them Ferns, forty of which have not been found elsewhere. Among these are several species of _Walchia_, a genus of Conifers, of which an example is given in Fig. 75. [52] “Elements of Geology,” p. 456. [Illustration: Fig. 76.--Trigonocarpum Nöggerathii.] In their stems, leaves, and cones, they bear some resemblance to the _Araucarias_, which have been introduced from North America into our pleasure-grounds during the last half-century. Among the genera enumerated by Colonel Von Gutbier are some fruits called _Cardiocarpon_, and _Asterophyllites_ and _Annularia_, so characteristic of the Carboniferous age. The Lepidodendron is also common to the Permian rocks of Saxony, Russia, and Thuringia; also the _Nöggerathia_, a family of large trees, intermediate between Cycads (Fig. 72) and the Conifers. The fruit of one of these is represented in Fig 76. PERMIAN ROCKS.--We now give a sketch of the physiognomy of the earth in Permian times. Of what do the beds consist? What is the extent, and what is the mineralogical constitution of the rocks deposited in the seas of the period? The Permian formation consists of three members, which are in descending order-- 1. Upper Permian sandstone, or Grès des Vosges; 2. Magnesian Limestone, or Zechstein; 3. Lower Red Sandstone, Marl-slate or Kupferschiefer, and Rothliegende. The _grès des Vosges_, usually of a red colour, and from 300 to 450 feet thick, composes all the southern part of the Vosges Mountains, where it forms frequent level summits, which are evidences of an ancient plain that has been acted on by running water. It only contains a few vegetable remains.