HAMILTON PERIOD. 



283 



Fig. 483. 



Fig. 484. 



Fig. 483, Lepidodendron primaevuin ; 

 484, SigiUaria. 



Huntingdon, Pa., and fig. 484, a SigiUaria, from Otsego co. and 

 other places in New York. The first is related, and probably both, 

 to the Lycopodia (Ground-Pine) of 

 modern damp woods. The largest 

 of living Lycopodia are three to four 

 feet in height. These earliest repre- 

 sentatives of the type had trunks a 

 foot or more in diameter, and may 

 have been more than a score of feet 

 in height. These plants are covered 

 with leaves much like Pines and 

 other Conifers ; and the stem in 

 fig. 484 resembles that of a Spruce, 

 stripped of its leaves. In the Devo- 

 nian of the vicinity of Gaspe, of St. 

 John, New Brunswick, of Ontario co. 

 N. Y., and of other places, there is 

 true Coniferous fossil wood (Daw- 

 son). 



For remarks on the subdivision of Plants, see page 165. On the 

 frontispiece, representing a Carboniferous landscape, the stump in 

 the right corner is a SigiUaria; the highest tree in the same corner 

 is a Lepidodendron, and the smaller plants near it, having stems cov- 

 ered with short leaves, are other, Lycopodiaceous species ; the high 

 tree in the left corner is also a Lepidodendron ; the tree towards the 

 middle of the view is a tree-fern, and the spreading leaves at its foot 

 are the fronds of low ferns. 



The Coniferous plants are referred by Dawson to the genera Dadoarylon and 

 Protaxites. In the Devonian rocks of Gaspe, St. John, and Perry in Maine, re- 

 mains of many species of plants of the SigiUaria, Catamites, Lycopodium, and 

 Fern tribes, etc., occur. Among them Lepidodendron Gaspianum Dawson, Psilo- 

 phyton princepz Daw., Cordaites angustifolia Daw., Cyclopteris Jacksoni, besides 

 others mentioned on page 290. A number of species are common to Perry, Maine, 

 and the New Brunswick beds. The rocks belong to the Upper Devonian, and are 

 either Chemung or Hamilton, or both. Nearly 100 species of American Devonian 

 land-plants are now known. 



The relics of sea-weeds are common ; and one of the most abun- 

 dant is related to the Fucoides Cauda-galli (fig. 441). It is sometimes 

 a foot in diameter. 



2. Animals. 



The animal remains of the Marcellus are comparatively few^ 

 and, excepting the Goniatites, generally small ; their small num- 

 ber corresponds with the fact that the rock is a fine shale. In 

 the Hamilton beds, which are coarser and often resemble a con- 

 solidated mud-bed, fossils are much more numerous. With the 



