1859.] DAWSON DEVONIAN PLANTS. 487 



dinal ribs, but others are quite smooth, or marked only by the rhombic 

 structure-lines of the coaly matter. All show transverse or diagonal 

 ridges, though some of these seem to be merely cracks filled with 

 mineral matter. Crushed Calamites, in a very bad state of preserva- 

 tion, might assume these appearances ; but, until better specimens 

 occur, the true nature of these plants must remain doubtful. They 

 are very possibly of the same nature with the Calamite-like stems 

 described by Miller in his * Testimony of the Rocks,' p. 439. 



In every part of the Gaspe sections, beds occur having their sur- 

 faces thickly covered with fragments of carbonized vegetable matter, 

 evidently dnfted by the currents which deposited the sand composing 



the beds. A large proportion of these eom- 



*ig- V. minuted plants belong to the genus Psilo- 



phyton ; but many are fragments of the wood 



of larger vegetables. Nearly all are in a very 



imperfect state of preservation ; and most of 



those that retain their structure show a sca- 



lariform tissue similar to that represented 



in fig. 6, and probably belong to the axis of 



Lepidodendron. Others exhibit elongated 



woody cells, without minute markings, per-*' 



haps from the cortical portion of the same 



Fig. 6. Scalariform tissue genus, or possibly coniferous*. Another form 



(magnified 300 diams.). ^f carbonaceous matter, abundant in some of 



the sandstones, consists of scaly fragments resembling the remains 



of decayed cones, probably Lepidostrohi. 



The great abundance of vegetable fragments throughout an im- 

 mense thickness of rock indicates the existence of extensive land- 

 surfaces clothed with vegetation, though this apparently consisted of 

 but a few species. The small bed of coal occurring in the lower 

 part of the section is composed entirely of irregularly laminated 

 shining coaly matter without mineral charcoal. From its appear- 

 ance and the vegetable remains in its underclay, I infer that it con- 

 sists principally of the accumulated rhizomata of PsilopJiyton in situ. 

 Its roof-shale is filled with the Poacites-like leaves before men- 

 tioned, and with stems of PsilojpTiyton ; and it is remarkable that 

 these last are in great part coiled up in the state of vernation, as if 

 overwhelmed by a succession of spring-floods. 



5. Animal Eemains, Rain-make:s, etc. 



The animal remains found in the plant-beds were Entomostraca 

 (Beyrichia), Spirorhis (resembling that of the coal-measures). Worm- 

 tracks, and Ichthyodorulites (OncTius and Machcer acanthus f). In 

 one of the beds above the coal Sir W. E. Logan found a few brachio- 

 podous shells, apparently identical with those at the base of the 

 series, and also some remarkable transversely marked frirrows, which 

 may have been produced by worms or by marine gasteropods. 



* ApoToxylon (linger), 



t Prof. Newberry regards one of these as identical with his MacJuBracanthus 

 sulcatus from the Devonian of Ohio. 



