FLOKA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS EPOCH. 35 



imperfect preservation of the minute structures. The inter- 

 pretation here given of the fructification of this interesting 

 fossil exhibits so close a resemblance to what we find in the 

 living genus Hymenophyllum, that, were it not for the vege- 

 tative portions, it would be placed in that genus. Several 

 ferns have been described by Bunbury from Devonian rocks 

 at Oporto. A still more extensive and varied land flora of 

 Devonian age (or Erian, as he calls it) has been described 

 and illustrated by Principal Dawson from the rocks of that 

 period occurring in Canada ; and during a recent visit to 

 Britain he has correlated many of the fragments collected by 

 Miller, Peach, and others, with the American species he has 

 described. The following are some of the fossil plants from 

 beds older than the Carboniferous system : * — Prototaxites 

 Logani, Dadoxylon Ouangondianum, Calamites transitionis, 

 Asterophyllites parvulus, SpliQuophyllum antiquum, Lepido- 

 dendron Gaspianum, Lepidostrobus Richardsoni, L. IMatthewi, 

 Psilophyton princeps, P. robustius, Selaginites formosus, 

 Cordaites Robbii, C. angustifolius, Cyclopteris Jacksoni. 



From the microscopic examination of the structure of 

 specimens of fossil trunks described under the name of Pro- 

 totaxites Logani, and which Principal Dawson believes to be 

 the oldest known instance of Coniferous wood, INIr. Carruthers 

 has come to the conclusion that they are really the stems of 

 huge Alg£e, belonging to at least more than one genus. They 

 are very gigantic when contrasted with the ordinary Alga? of 

 our existing seas, nevertheless sojiie approach to them in size 

 is made in the huge and tree-like Lessonias which Dr. Hooker 

 found in the Antarctic Seas, and which have stems about 

 20 feet high, with a diameter so great that they have been 

 collected by mariners in these regions for fuel, under the 

 belief that they were drift-wood. They are as thick as a man's 



''^ Dawson, Jour. Geol. Soc. Lond. xv. Canadian Naturalist, v. 

 Acadian Geology, 2d edit. Fossil plants of the Devonian and upper 

 Silurian Formations of Canada, with 20 plates ; in Report of Geolo- 

 gical Survey of Canada. 



