478 PllOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 5, 



ary or obscure, that it was not deemed expedient to attempt their 

 description before studying them (as all fossil plants should, when 

 practicable, be studied) in the rocks in which they occur. With this 

 view I visited Gaspe in the past sunimer, and examined the localities 

 indicated on the plans and sections of the Geological Survey. The 

 facts and specimens thus obtained will probably be fully described 

 and illustrated in one of the forthcoming Decades of Canadian Fossils ; 

 and in the meantime I propose to notice some of the species observed, 

 which appear to be of especial interest in the present state of our 

 general knowledge of the Devonian flora. 



Before proceeding to these descriptions, it may be necessary to 

 state that the deposit in which the fossils occur consists of sandstone 

 and shale, of various colours and textures, with some conglomerate 

 and thin-bedded coarse limestone, and a seam of bituminous coal, 

 one inch in thickness. The whole series is estimated by Sir W. E. 

 Logan at 7000 feet of vertical thickness. It rests on Upper Silurian 

 rocks, and underlies unconformably the conglomerates which here 

 form the base of the Carboniferous system. Some of the beds, 

 especially in the lower part of the series, contain marine fossils of 

 Lower Devonian forms, which are now in process of examination by 

 Mr. Billings, of the Geological Survey. The greater part of the 

 beds are, however, destitute of marine fossils, and present appear- 

 ances indicative of shallow water and even of land-surfaces. Some of 

 the species of plants occur throughout the whole thickness ; but the 

 bed of coal and most of the plants in situ are found in the lower 

 and middle portions of the series. Detailed sections and descriptions 

 of the beds will be found in the Eeport above referred to. 



1. PsiLOPHTTON-, gen. nov. (Figs. 1 & 2.) 



Lycopodiaceous plants, branching dichotomously , and covered with 

 interrupted ridges or closely appressed minute leaves; the stems 

 springing from a rhizoma having circular areoles, sending forth 

 cylindrical rootlets. Internal structure ; an axis of scalariform 

 vessels, surrounded by (t cylinder of parenchymatous cells, and by 

 an outer cortical cylinder of elongated woody cells (prosenchyma). 

 Fructification probably in lateral masses, protected by leafy bracts. 



The most remarkable and interesting plant of the formation is 

 one which, I believe, has frequently been observed and described 

 elsewhere from fragmentary specimens, but which occurs in the 

 Gaspe sections in a state of perfection unusual with palaeozoic plants. 

 It is characterized by slender, bifurcating, ridged stems, proceeding 

 from a horizontal rhizoma, which sends forth numerous rootlets. 

 The rhizomata, evidently in situ, clothe some beds of indurated clay 

 with a mat of creeping and occasionally bifurcating cylindrical 

 stems, filHng the beds below with their vertical rootlets. They 

 attain a diameter of an inch or more, though usually smaller, and a 

 length of at least three feet. They are irregularly dotted with mi- 

 nute linear punctures, the marks probably of ramenta ; and at inter- 

 vals there are circular areoles with central pits, like those of Stig- 



