374 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [July, 



aosperm." 8 As a matter of fact, the building-stone beds, from which 

 it was obtained, are stratigraphically many thousand feet above the 

 base of the Triassic. 



The Calamites from Bucks County, discovered many years ago 

 by Mr. John S. Ash, had been identified by Lesquereux as Calamites 

 <m nanus, a Triassic species, 9 and later by Dr. N. L. Britton 10 as 

 Schizoneura laticostata (or planicostata) , a form occurring in the 

 Upper Triassic of Virginia. As there still seemed to be a possibility, 

 however, that the fossil was of Permian age, the writer in 1908 

 carried on excavations at the locality, and sent the material then 

 obtained together with specimens of this plant and a cycad pre- 

 viously collected by Mr. Ash and by the Mineralogical and Geological 

 Section of the Academy to the United States National Museum for 

 identification. It was there examined by Messrs. David White and 

 F. H. Knowlton, the foremost authorities on Carboniferous and 

 Triassic plants, respectively, and they reported as follows: 



"The equisetalean stem fragments probably belong to Schizoneura, 

 with which they accord fairly well. The gymnospermous fragment 

 seems to belong to Cycadites, and has many characters in common 

 with C. tenuinervis of the southern Newark. The material affords 

 no evidence of Paleozoic age, the equisetalean specimens being 

 generally unlike the Paleozoic Calamites and Equisetites, while the 

 genus Cycadites is unknown in the cosmopolitan Permian flora. 11 

 Though of relatively little value, the data embraced in {.his collection 

 points toward Triassic age." 



The " dendrophycus " is of no diagnostic value because it is of 

 inorganic origin, representing a rill-mark, 12 and of course water flowed 

 over mud about the same in the Triassic as in the Carboniferous 

 period. So there remains to be considered only the silicified wood. 

 Of the three species found in Pennsylvania one has its nearest relative 

 in the Permian of Europe, although the other two are more like 

 Jurassic forms, as pointed out in the preceding paper. The apparent 

 similarities would no doubt largely disappear, however, if well- 

 preserved material were available for direct comparison, for pub- 



8 A Brief Sketch of Fossil Plants, Ann. Rept. Stale Geol. N. J., 1905, p. 124, 

 note 2, No. 5. 



'Lewis, II. C. A Great Trap Dyke Across Southeastern Pennsylvania. 

 Proc. Amer. Philos. Sac, XXII, p. 453, 1883. 



10 [Exhibition of Specimens.] Trans. N. Y. Acad. /...., V, p. 17, 1885. 



1 Although Goppert described two species from t) a Carboniferous limestone 

 of Silesia: Beitrage zur Kenntniss Fossiler Cycadeen, Neues Jahrb. Min. 

 Paleont., 1866, pp. 131, 132, pi. II. [E. T. W.] 



Lull, R. S.: The Life of the Connecticut Trias, Amer. Jour. Sci., [41, 

 XXXIII, p. 403, 1912. 



