Organic Remains. 233 



the places which they now occupy. Mixed with them, however, and 

 much less broken, we find impressions on the shale, in which usually 

 little vegetable matter remains. These are rarely more than an inch 

 or an inch and a half wide ; but No. 252 is more than 4 inches wide, 

 and this is the largest I have met with. These impressions are 

 slightly striated longitudinally : and probably belong to the tribe of 

 fossil plants Calamites ; possibly to the Calamites arenaceus of Adol- 

 phe Brongniart.* Yet I have rarely noticed any distinct articula- 

 tions in the specimens. Not unfrequently a thin layer of coal occu- 

 pies the place of the vegetable; its surface still exhibiting a striated 

 or furrowed aspect. Indeed, I think it possible that even those speci- 

 mens that are so much broken (No. 253) may belong to the same 

 family of plants. 



De la Beche mentions that the Lycopodites Sillimanni a fossil 

 plant peculiar to America is found at Hadley in Connecticut.! 

 No such town exists in Connecticut ; and I can have but little doubt 

 that this is a mistake for South Hadley, Massachusetts ; for I know 

 of some gentlemen in Connecticut, who obtained some years ago, 

 several peculiar vegetable fossils at that place ; though I have not 

 been so fortunate. Professor Silliman, who probably sent this fossil 

 to Europe, has no recollection concerning it. 



I obtained a single specimen several years ago at Sunderland, and 

 gave a figure of it in the 6th volume of the American Journal of 

 Science, which bears considerable resemblance to the rachis of the 

 voltzia brevifolia, when destitute of fructification, as figured by Ad. 

 Brongniart in the 15th volume of the Annales des Sciences, and 

 found in the sandstone formation near Strasburg. 



In some of the lowest beds of this formation, (those which have 

 been heretofore called the old red sandstone,) I have lately found, in 

 Deerfield and Greenfield, a singular petrifaction, which Dr. Morton 

 says, " evidently belongs to the fossil genus Fucoides, of which Dr. 

 Harlan has described a species from the sandstone of Genesee, New 

 York, under the name of F. Brongniartii. (Amer. Jour, of Geology.) 

 If your specimens were weathered, their specific characters would 

 be more obvious, and would probably prove identical with those from 

 Genesee. Dr. Harlan, however, has used a specific name already in 

 use ; for among British fossils, there is a F. Brongniartii enumerated 



* Historie des Vegetaux Fossiles, Plate 23. Fig 1 . 1. 



t Manuel, p. 410, 2d edition. 



30 



