Section IV., 189T. [ 57 ] Trans. R. S. C. 



II. — On the Genus Lepidophloios as illustrated bxj sjyeclmens from the Coal 

 Formation of Nova. Scotia and New Brunswick. 



By Sir J. William Dawson, C.M.Ct., LL.D., F.E.S. 



(Read June 24th, 1897.) 



In the flora of the Carboniferous period, nothing is more remarkable 

 than the abundance and wide distribution, as well as the magnitude and 

 complex structure of trees allied to the humble Lycopods or Club Mosses 

 of our modern woods. Trees of this type appear in the preceding Erian 

 or Devonian period, but they attain their maximum development in the 

 time of the deposition of the productive coal-measures, and rapidly dim- 

 inish in the Permo-Carboniferous, disappearing altogether in the Per- 

 mian. The great size and peculiar forms and structures of these trees, 

 with the fragmentary state of most of the specimens obtained, have led 

 to much confusion and controversy, and there are still important ques- 

 tions in dispute respecting soaie of the forms, and very specially in regard 

 to the genus Lepidophloios and its allies. 



As a contribution to the knowledge of these plants, and with the 

 view of I'esolving some of the doubts entertained with respect to them 

 two species are here described, to which the attention of the writer has 

 been directed for many years, and of which he has collected and studied 

 many specimens in dilîerent states of preservation. They are those which 

 he had named Lepidophloios Acadianus and L. Cliftonensis. 



It will be instructive, in the tirst instance, to illustrate these by 

 specimens from the coalfields of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which 

 have been placed with the rest of the author's collections of Carboniferous 

 fossils in the Peter Redpath Museum of McGill University, and which 

 more or less completely disj^lay their habit of growth, external parts, 

 reproduction and internal structure. 



The first of the species above-named, I met with about fifty years ago. 

 In Working at that time in the beds of sandstone containing erect Cala- 

 mités at Dickson's Mills, near Piclou, Nova Scotia, I found lying prostrate 

 among the Calamité stems a trunk, or large branch, with leaves and cones 

 attached. It was mentioned, merely incidentally, in connection with the 

 description of the mode of occurrence of the erect Calamités, in a paper 

 in the Journal of the Geological Society of London,' and a cone and 

 a portion of the bark, with the leaves attached, were presented to the 

 collection of the society, along with the specimens of Calamités, rooted 

 in situ, described in the jjaper. At that time, however, I supposed that 

 the plant in question was referable to the genus Lejndodejidron, and it 

 was noticed merely as illustrative ot the occurrence of other trees in the 

 1 Vol. VII., 1851. 



