PETER REDPATH MUSEUM, McGiLL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL, 



NOTES ON SPECIMENS, 1890. 



ON NEW PLANTS FROM THE BRIAN AND CARBONIF- 

 EROUS, AND ON THE CHARACTERS AND 



AFFINITIES OF PALAEOZOIC G-YMNOSPERMS. 1 



BY Sm J. WILLIAM DAWSON, L.L.D., F.R.S. 



In Palseo-botany it often happens that some specimen 

 recently discovered opens up a multitude of new questions 

 respecting former acquisitions. A noteworthy instance of 

 this in my recent experience, h^s been the kind communica- 

 tion to me by Mr. E. D Lacoe of Pittston, Pennsylvania, of 

 some specimens of Palaeozoic Gymnosperms obtained by him 

 in the Catskill and Carboniferous of Pennsylvania. One of 

 these is a large slab containing a leafy and fruit-bearing 

 branch or stem of a new plant allied to Cordaitese on the one 

 hand and to Nceggerathisa on the other, and remarkable 

 for its exhibiting in connection parts usually found separ- 

 ately. Another is a set of specimens of certain peculiar 

 organs of fructification referred by European palseo-botanists 

 to the genus Dolerophyllwn, allied to JSTceggerathia, and which 

 have not, so far as I am aware, been previously found in 

 America. About the same time Mr. Francis Bain, of North 

 Eiver, Prince Edward Island, had placed in my hands some 



1 Reprinted from the CANADIAN RECORD OP SCIENCE, January, 1890. 



