white: age of the Worcester phyllite 117 



little chance for the recognizable preservation of the delicate types 

 of land plants most useful for age determination, the writer on the 

 occasion of his brief visit to the old "mine" in October, 1911, set 

 about the search for either clay ironstones or pyritic nodules 

 ("niggerheads") which when occurring in the shales above coal 

 beds are so often found to contain vestiges of more or less decayed 

 but undeformed organic structures. The expectation that such 

 sulphide nodules when surrounded by soft, plastic, and therefore 

 compensating material, might, if present, have escaped serious 

 deformation, was essentially borne out by the discovery of con- 

 cretions containing recognizable fossils in the graphitic argillite. 

 However, contrary to expectation, the concretions were found to 

 contain brecciated shale fragments of various sizes and in varying 

 attitudes. It appears that this shale was fractured or brecciated 

 prior to the segregation of the sulphide. At present the inter- 

 stices between the shale pieces, some of which were found to be 

 as large as the palm of the hand, are largely occupied by asbesti- 

 form prochlorite (after fibrous pyrite?), though more or less iron 

 sulphide is present. 



The concretions above the graphite bed in the phyllite are few 

 and rather hard to extract, and the included plant fragments in 

 the particular shale layers represented therein appear to be scarce 

 and generally small, but fortunately they are fairly distinct and 

 practically undisturbed, the pieces of shale being less deformed 

 so that the paleobotanical details are clear. In the relatively 

 few fragments found during the writer's brief search, small 

 portions of Cordaites leaves, probably C. borassifolius, are rela- 

 tively plentiful. Other fragments include a small leaflet of Sphen- 

 opteris comparable to S. dicksonioides Stur; an isolated leaf cush- 

 ion of Lepidodendron, possibly L. obovatum; a Sporocystis, and a 

 small Equise'talean cone. 



Thru the courtesy of Professor Perry the opportunity has been 

 given the writer to examine and photograph one side of the Lepi- 

 dodendron found by him in gritty schist. As to the validity 

 of this impression there is no room for doubt. Though the bol- 

 sters are partially defaced and alteration products largely mask 





