GEOLOGY. 331 



DEVONIAN TREES. 



Fossil wood is announced, by J. W. Dawson (Proceedings Amer. Assoc., 

 tenth meeting, p. 174), as occurring in the Devonian standstones of Gaspe. 

 The wood was black and silicified, being a trunk four feet long, and seven to 

 nine and a half inches in diameter. A cross section exhibited a distinct cel- 

 lular tissue, with circular, not crowded, cells; and there were well-defined 

 rings of growth, averaging about a line in breadth. In a vertical section, 

 the cells were seen to be elongated, and to terminate in conical points; they 

 showed traces of transverse and diagonal fibres, sometimes decussating, but 

 no medullary rays or disk structures were visible. The tree was referred to 

 the Coniferae, but stated to differ materially from any previously observed 

 form. The author adds that it may be related to fossil trees of the Devonian 

 " Cypridina schists " of Saalfield in Meiningen, described by Professor linger 

 as of very singular organization, as if the prototypes of the " Gymnosperms." 



ON THE PLANTS OF THE COAL SERIES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



A memoir, published in the Journal of the Bost. Soc. Nat. His. vol. VI., by 

 Messrs. Rogers and Lesquereux, contains descriptions of one hundred and 

 six new species of coal-plants from the coal-fields of Pennsylvania. Prof. 

 Rogers, in his introductory observations, states that M. Lesquereux has found 

 that, out of over two hundred species examined by him, one hundred are 

 " identical with species already recognized in the European coal-fields, and 

 some fifty more of them show differences so slight that a fuller comparison 

 with better specimens may result in their identification likewise ; " moreover, 

 " those new species, which seem to be restricted to this continent, are every 

 one of them in close relationship with European forms." The new species 

 are of Calamites 2, Asterophyllites 5, Annularia 1, Sphenophyllum 2, No?g- 

 gerathia 3, Cyclopteris 5, Neuropleris 13, Odontopteris 2, Sphenopteris 8, 

 Hymenophyllites 3, Pachyphyllum (new genus) 5, Asplenites 1, Alcthopteris 

 5, Callipteris 1, Pecopteris 7, Crematopteris 1, Scolopendrites 1, Caulopteris 

 2, Stigmaria 5, Sigillarea 9, Lepidodendron 10, LepidophyJlum 6, Brachyphyl- 

 lum 1, Cardiocarpon 3, Trigonocarpum 1, Rhabdocarpus 1, Carpolithes 3; 

 and Pinnularia 5 (named but undescribed). 



FOSSILS FROM TEXAS. 



At a late meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Prof. Jeffries 

 "Wyman gave an account of some fossil bones, presented to the Society by 

 Dr. Chas. Martin, U. S. N., which were purchased by him while attached to 

 the Coast Survey during the winter of 1855-6, at the mouth of the Brazos 

 river. They were discovered in the bed of the river, during its low stage, 

 about fifty miles from the coast. The collection is very valuable and inte- 

 resting, not only as representing three distinct races of gigantic quadrupeds, 

 but as indicating a new locality in the geographical distribution of the ani- 

 mals to which they belonged. It is not a little remarkable that three such 

 genera as Mastodon, Elephant, and Megatherium, should be represented in a 

 collection of no more than eight specimens taken at random. Six of the 

 eight appear to have undergone similar changes of density and mineraliza- 

 tion; these are the symphysis of the lower jaw, and ultimate molar, and the 

 lemur of an elephant, the tibia of megatherium, and the two molars of a 



