HAMILTON PERIOD. 



283 



Fig. 483. 



Fig. 484, 



4S3, Lepidodendron priniEevuui; 

 4S4, Sigillaria. 



Huntingdon, Pa., and fig. 484, a Sigillaria, 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, near 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is true 

 Coniferous fossil wood, according to 

 Dawson. 



For remarks on the subdivisions 

 of Plants, see page 165. On the frontispiece, representing a Car- 

 boniferous landscape, the stump in the right corner is a Sigillaria ; 

 the highest tree in the same corner is a Lepidodendron, and the 

 smaller plants near it, having stems covered 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 plant of Graspe is named by Dawson Protaxites Logani. In the 

 same formation there are also the following species of the Lycopodium tribe : — 

 Lepidodendron Gaspianum Dawson, Psilophyton princepa Dawson, Cordaites an- 

 gustifolia Dawson, and the fern Cyclopteris Jacksoni. These four species occur 

 also at Perry, Me., together with a species of Sternbergia, which, according to 

 Dawson, is probably the pith of a Coniferous tree of the genus Dadoxylon, a 

 subdivision of Araucarites. 



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 



