l6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



special interest attaches to these early faunas of the earth, and their 

 development in what is now the basin of Lake Champlain is most 

 favorable, though it has not received merited attention. The collec- 

 tions which we have made in this region during the past five years 

 are extensive and are now undergoing review preliminary to a care- 

 ful reconsideration of the faunas. Actual additions to the numeri- 

 cal status of the faunas prove to be relatively numerous and of much 

 interest, and these are brought together and presented with this 

 report. Dr Ruedemann has been specially concerned in the collection 

 and study of these bodies and has begun the preparation of a series of 

 discussions pertaining thereto. I incorporate in this report some of 

 his papers relating to certain aspects of the cephalopods, and these 

 contributions will be found of more than ordinary interest in their 

 exposition of the structural characters of these creatures. Prof. 

 George H. Hudson of Plattsburg, who has long studied the rocks and 

 fossil faunas of Valcour island, has also cooperated in this work by 

 adding the descriptions of some interesting species discovered by him 

 in the Chazy formation there. 



Fossil plants of the paleozoic rocks. In the history of this office no 

 serious effort has been specially directed to acquiring the plant re- 

 mains found in the New York rock formations. Not that these have 

 been intentionally ignored or overlooked but the collections which we 

 possess have been acquired incidentally to the exploitation of the 

 marine faunas. In the course of years these incidental collections 

 have grown to be of considerable moment and embrace a few speci- 

 mens of commanding size, such as the so called fern stumps from 

 Gilboa, the gigantic seaweed (Nematoxylon) from Monroe. Orange 

 CO. and the great Lepidodendron from Naples — all from the Upper 

 Devonic. Some forty years ago Professor Hall interested Sir Wil- 

 liam Dawson, who was generally acknowledged the most expert stu- 

 dent of Devonic plants in America, in some of the New York 

 material and both at that time and subsequently Sir William pub- 

 lished brief accounts of some of our species. Professors D. P. Pen- 

 hallow and C. S. Prosser have also given incidental attention to this 

 class of fossils, though taken all together but little has been done in 



