'UTER, the upper division of the triassic period, consisting in the typical German series of a thickness of more than 1000 ft. of (1) various colored sandstones; (2) marls, with gypsum and dolomite; and (3) a series of carbonaceous slate-clay, with gray sand stones and small irregular beds of impure earthy coal. In Britain, it consists of (1) an extensive series of red marls, with large deposits of rock-salt and gypsum; and (2) white and brown sandstones with beds of red marl. The whole reaches a maximum thickness of 1300 feet. The keuper occupies a large portion of the valleys of the Ouse and the Trent, and is extensively developed in Worcester, Stafford, and Cheshire, where beds of salt, often as much as 80 or 100 ft. in thickness, occur. The keuper does not abound in fossils. The contained organisms differ from those of the permian and older periods; they have the general appearance of the fossils of the lias and oolite. The plants con sist of ferns, equisetum-looking plants. cycads, and conifers. The character of the rocks; and the quantity of oxide of iron, which seems to have been injurious to life, account for the paucity of fossils. The strata are chiefly of interest to the paleontologist, because of the numerous footprints they contain (see IciucoLoGy), and the remains of • the reptiles which produced them, as well as because in them are also found the only observed fragments—the teeth—of the oldest mammal yet known. See MicuoLEms.
KEW, a small village in Surrey, on the right bank of the Thames, and six miles w. of Hyde Park corner. On the opposite side of the river is Brentford, with which Kew is connected by a bridge. The most interesting object at Kew is the royal botanic gar dens, containing a large and choice collection of plants, native and exotic, which have been arranged with great skill and care by sir W. J. Hooker. The hot-houses and con servatories are very numerous. There are also a 362 ft. by and 60 ft. high ; a temperate house, of the same height, occupying three-fourths of an acre; and a museum. The gardens extend over about 75 acres, and the pleasure-gTounds connected with them to 240 acres. The botanic gardens were commenced by the mother of George III., but owe much of their celebrity to the able management of sir W. J. Hooker (q.v.). Since 1840 they have been open to the public in the afternoons, Sundays not excepted. There is also an observatory, which, however, is used chiefly as a meteorological station.