106 Fossil Plants^ SfC. 



V 



i 



near the joints, bat embraces only a part of the original, which, 

 when first separated from the slate, was nearly a foot in length ; 

 it may be called a cast, as it parted in a thin layer and came out 

 from the rest of the stone. No, 38, '' Calamites Steinhaueri/' 

 No. 39, " Calamites ramosus/' Nos. 41 and 42, are different 

 varieties of the same and ought to receive distinct names. But 

 my knowledge of fossil botany is too limited to permit me to 

 venture on conferring many names until the fossil plants are more 

 thoroughly examined- No. 40, is without doubt, a new species of 

 Calamites, much resembling '^ Calamites arenaceus." The figure 

 is only one sixth the size of the original, which is beautifully impress- 

 ed in slate, with the large oval cicatrix finely developed in relief. 

 No. 43 and 44, are probably different species of Equisetum, although 

 the scaly cuticle resembles some species of the palm tree. No. 43, 

 represents a number of branches, broken from the main stem, and 

 so great is the likeness to the scales of a snake, that the workmen 

 call them the remains of petrified snake skins. The scales are repla- 

 ced by coal, the whole thickness of the remains not being over the 

 sixteenth of an inch, but very perfectly figured. No. 44, is a diff- 

 erently formed scale, and much larger. No. 45, represents two 

 varieties of ^'Sphenopteris crenulata." No. 46, resembles, in some 

 respects, ^^Neuropteris Dufresnoyi," but is doubtless a new species; 

 the leaves are too ovate for that species, and single leaves of the same 

 are scattered through the mass. No. 47, I have called Neuropteris 

 acutifolia. The two figures at the bottom may be the terminal 

 leaves of other branches. No. 48, much resembles ^'Sphenopteris 

 obtusiloba.'' It is broken into several pieces, the large stem at the 

 the bottom being a part of the same branch. — 40 feet. 



4. A thin bed of coal, twenty inches in thickness, resting on the 

 great bed of shale and slate clay; it is not worked. 



5. Argillaceous sandstone rock, composed of fine round grains, of 

 sand, and but little mica, color light iron rust or light buff. The 

 upper portion of this great deposit is stratified in thin beds. . The 

 lower part, in beds of fifteen or twenty feet in thickness. It splits 

 easily into fine building stone, and is extensively used in the struct- 

 ure of salt furnaces. This bed is nearly two hundred feet in thickness 

 and is a vast magazine of fossil palm trees, Calamites and other fossil 

 remains. Figures No. 49, (page 21 of the wood cuts;) Nos. 50 and 

 51, (p. 19 ;) No. 52, (p. 21 ;) Nos. 55, 56 and 58, (p. 22,) are from 

 this rock. No. 49, is a fragment of a large trunk of a "Calamites 



