fronds were evidently different from those of Archæopteris,* a genus characteristic of the same beds, but of very different habit of growth. This accords with the fact that there is in Prof. Hall's collection a mass of fronds of Cyclopteris (Archæopteris) Jacksoni, so arranged as to make it probable that the plant was an herbaceous fern, producing tufts of fronds on short stems in the ordinary way. The obscurity of the leaf-scars may render it doubtful whether the plant above described should be placed in the genus Caulopteris or in Stemmatopteris; but it appears most nearly allied to the former. The genus is at present, of course, a provisional one; but I have thought it only justice to the diligent labours of Mr. Lockwood to name this curious and interesting fossil Caulopteris Lockwoodi. I have elsewhere remarked on the fact that trunks, and petioles, and pinnules of ferns are curiously dissociated in the Devonian beds -an effect of water-sorting, characteristic of a period in which the conditions of deposition were so varied. Another example of this is, that in the sandstones of Gaspé Bay, which have not as yet afforded any example of fronds of ferns, there are compressed trunks, which Mr. Lockwood's specimens allow me at least to conjecture may have belonged to tree-ferns, although none of them are sufficiently perfect for description. Mr. Lockwood's collection includes specimens of Psaronius textilis; and in addition to these there are remains of erect stems somewhat different in character, yet possibly belonging to the higher parts of the same species of tree-fern. One of these is a stem crushed in such a manner that it does not exhibit its form with any distinctness, but surrounded by smooth, cylindrical roots, radiating from it in bundles, proceeding at first horizontally, and then curving downward, and sometimes terminating in rounded ends. They resemble in form and size the aërial roots of Psaronius Erianus; and I believe them to be similar roots from a higher part of the stem, and some of them young and not prolonged sufficiently far to reach the ground. This specimen would thus represent the stem of P. Erianus at a higher level than those previously found. We can thus in imagination restore the trunk and crown of this once graceful tree-fern, though we have not the detail of its fronds. Mr. Lockwood's collections also contain a specimen of the large fern-petiole which I have named Rhachiopteris punctata. My original specimen was obtained by Prof. Hall from the same horizon in New York. * The genus to which the well-known Cyclopteris (Adiantites) Hibernicus of the Devonian of Ireland belongs. That of Mr. Lockwood is of larger size, but retains no remains of the frond. It must have belonged to a species quite distinct from Caulopteris Lockwoodi, but which may, like it, have been a tree-fern. 2. Caulopteris antiqua, Newberry. - This is a flattened stem, on a slab of limestone, containing Brachiopods, Trilobites, &c., of the Corniferous limestone. It is about eighteen inches in length, and three and a half inches in average breadth. The exposed side shows about twenty-two large leaf - scars arranged spirally. Each leaf, where broken off, has left a rough fracture; and above this is a semicircular impression of the petiole against the stem, which, as well as the surface of the bases of the petioles, is longitudinally striated or tuberculated. The structures are not preserved, but merely the outer epidermis, as a coaly film. The stem altogether much resembles Caulopteris Peachii, but is of larger size. It differs from C. Lockwoodi in the more elongated leaf-bases, and in the leaves being more remotely placed; but it is evidently of the same general character with that species. 3. Caulopteris (Protopteris) peregrina, Newberry. - This is a much more interesting species than the last, as belonging to a generic or subgeneric form not hitherto recognised below the Carboniferous, and having its minute structure in part preserved. The specimens are, like the last, on slabs of marine limestone of the Corniferous formation, and flattened. One represents an upper portion of the stem with leaf-scars and remains of petioles; another a lower portion, with aërial roots. The upper part is three inches in diameter, and about a foot in length, and shows thirty leaf-scars, which are about three-fourths of an inch wide, and rather less in depth. The upper part presents a distinct rounded and sometimes double marginal line, sometimes with a slight depression in the middle. The lower part is irregular, and when most perfect shows seven slender vascular bundles, passing obliquely downward into the stem. The more perfect leaf-bases have the structure preserved, and show a delicate, thin-walled, oval parenchyma, while the vascular bundles show scalariform vessels with short bars in several rows, in the manner of many modern ferns. Some of the scars show traces of the hippocrepian mark characteristic of Protopteris; and the arrangement of the vascular bundles at the base of the scars is the same as in that genus, as are also the general form and arrangement of the scars. On careful examination, the species is indeed very near to the typical P. Sternbergii, as figured by Corda and Schimper.* * Corda, "Beiträge," Pl. 48, copied by Schimper, Pl. 52. The genus Protopteris of Sternberg, though the original species (P. punctata) appears as a Lepidodendron in his earlier plate (Plate 4), and as a Sigillaria (S. punctata) in Brongniart's great work, is a true tree-fern; and the structure of one species (P. Cottai) has been beautifully figuered by Corda. The species hitherto described are from the Carboniferous and Permian. The second specimen of this species represents a lower part of the stem. It is thirteen inches long and about four inches in diameter, and is covered with a mass of flattened aërial roots lying parallel to each other, in the manner of the Psaronites of the coal-formation and of P. Erianus of the Upper Erian or Devonian. 4. Asteropteris noveboracensis, gen. and sp. n. The genus Asteropteris is established for stems of ferns having the axial portion composed of vertical radiating plates of scalariform tissue embedded in parenchyma, and having the outer cylinder composed of elongated cells traversed by leaf-bundles of the type of those of Zygopteris. The only species known to me is represented by a stem 2.5 centimetres in diameter, slightly wrinkled and pitted externally, perhaps by traces of aërial roots which have perished. The transverse section shows in the centre four vertical plates of scalariform or imperfectly reticulated tissue, placed at right angles to each other, and united in the middle of the stem. At a short distance from the centre, each of these plates divides into two or three, so as to form an axis of from ten to twelve radiating plates, with remains of cellular tissue filling the angular interspaces. The greatest diameter of this axis is about 1.5 centimetre. Exterior to the axis the stem consists of elongated cells, with somewhat thick walls, and more dense toward the circumference. The walls of these cells present a curious reticulated appearance, apparently caused by the cracking of the ligneous lining in consequence of contraction in the process of carbonization. Embedded in this outer cylinder are about twelve vascular bundles, each with a dumb-bell-shaped group of scalariform vessels enclosed in a sheath of thick-walled fibres. Each bundle is opposite to one of the rays of the central axis. The specimen shows about two inches of the length of the stem, and is somewhat bent, apparently by pressure, at one end. This stem is evidently that of a small tree-fern of a type, so far as known to me, not before described,* and constituting a very complex and symmetrical form of the group of Palæozoic ferns allied * Prof. Williamson, to whom I have sent a tracing of the structure, agrees with me that it is new. to the genus Zygopteris of Schimper. The central axis alone has a curious resemblance to the peculiar stem described by Unger ("Devonian Flora of Thuringia") under the name of Cladoxylon mirabile; and it is just possible that this latter stem may be the axis of some allied plant. The large aërial roots of some modern treeferns of the genus Angiopteris have, however, an analogous radiating structure. The specimen is from the collection of Berlin H. Wright, Esq., of Penn Yan, New York, and was found in the Portage group (Upper Erian) of Milo, New York, where it was associated with large petioles of ferns and trunks of Lepidodendra, probably L. Chemungense and L. primævum. The occurrence of this and other stems of tree-ferns in marine beds has recently been illustrated by the observation of Prof. A. Agassiz that considerable quantities of vegetable matter can be dredged from great depths in the sea on the leeward side of the Caribbean Islands. The occurrence of these trunks further connects itself with the great abundance of large petioles (Rhachiopteris) in the same beds, while the rarity of well-preserved fronds is explained by the coarseness of the beds, and also by the probably long maceration of the plant-remains in the sea-water. In connection with this I may refer to the remarkable facts recently stated by Williamson * respecting the stems known as Heterangium and Lyginodendron. It would seem that these, while having strong exogenous peculiarities, are really stems of tree-ferns, thus placing this family in the same position of advancement with the Lycopods and Equisetaceæ of the Coal period. IV.-ON ERIAN TREES OF THE GENUS DADOXYLON, UNGER. Large woody trunks, carbonised or silicified, and showing woodcells with hexagonal areoles having oval pores inscribed in them, occur abundantly in some beds of the Middle Erian of America, and constitute the most common kind of fossil wood all the way to the Trias. They have in the older formations, generally, several rows of pores on each fibre, and medullary rays composed of two or more series of cells, but become more simple in these respects in the Permian and Triassic series. The names Araucarites and Araucarioxylon are perhaps objectionable, inasmuch as they suppose affinities to Araucaria which may not exist. Unger's name, which is non * "Proceedings of the Royal Society," January 6, 1887. committal, is therefore, I think, to be preferred. In my "Acadian Geology," and in my "Report on the Geology of Prince Edward Island," I have given reasons for believing that the foliage of some at least of these trees was that known as Walchia, and that they may have borne nutlets in the manner of Taxine trees (Trigonocarpum, &c.). Grand d'Eury has recently suggested that some of them may have belonged to Cordaites, or to plants included in that somewhat varied and probably artificial group. The earliest discovery of trees of this kind in the Erian of America was that of Matthew and Hartt, who found large trunks, which I afterwards described as Dadoxylon Ouangondianum, in the Erian sandstone of St. John, New Brunswick, hence named by those geologists the "Dadoxylon sandstone." A little later, similar wood was found by Prof. Hall and Prof. Newberry in the Hamilton group of New York and Ohio, and the allied wood of the genus Ormoxylon was obtained by Prof. Hall in the Portage group of the former State. These woods proved to be specifically distinct from that of St. John, and were named by me D. Halli, D. Newberryi, and Ormoxylon Erianum. The three species of Dadoxylon agreed in having composite medullary rays, and would thus belong to the group Palæoxylon of Brongniart. In the case of Ormoxylon this character could not be very distinctly ascertained, but the medullary rays appeared to be simple. I am indebted to Prof. J. M. Clarke, of Amherst College, Massachusetts, for some well-preserved specimens of another species from the Genesee shale of Canandaigua, New York. They show small stems or branches, with a cellular pith surrounded with wood of coniferous type, showing two to three rows of slit-formed, bordered pores in hexagonal borders. The medullary sheath consists of pseudo-scalariform and reticulated fibres; but the most remarkable feature of this wood is the structure of the medullary rays, which are very frequent, but short and simple, sometimes having as few as four cells superimposed. This is a character not before observed in coniferous trees of so great age, and allies this Middle Erian form with some Carboniferous woods which have been supposed to belong to Cordaites or Sigillaria. In any case this structure is new, and I have named the species Dadoxylon Clarkii, after its discoverer. The specimens occur, according to Prof. Clarke, in a calcareous layer which is filled with the minute shells of Styliola fissurella of Hall, believed to be a Pteropod; and containing also shells of Goniatites and Gyroceras. The stems found are only a few inches in diameter, but may be branches of larger trees. H |