ERIAN (DEVONIAN) SLANTS. 



307 



Journal ? of this Society for 1871, I referred, under the names of 

 Psaronius textilis and Caulopteris Lockwoodi, to certain remarkable 

 trunks of Ferns from the Chemung formation (Upper Devonian) of 

 Gilboa, New York, placed in my hands by Prof. Hall and Mr. Lock- 

 wood, and which were stated to be from a locality where numerous 

 erect trees exist. Prof. Hall has since extracted several of the 

 largest of these trees, and they are now in the State Geological Col- 

 lection at Albany, where I lately had the pleasure of examining them. 

 They entirely confirm my conclusions as to their nature, derived 

 from the fragments submitted to me, being evidently trunks of large 

 tree-ferns surrounded by masses of aerial roots, in some cases 2 feet 

 in diameter at the base, and apparently passing downward into a 

 shaly bed or underclay filled with rootlets. Prof. Hall hopes shortly 

 to publish illustrations of these remarkable trunks, representing the 

 oldest fossil forest yet known. 



(2) In the course of last summer, the researches of Messrs. Ellis, 

 Foord, and Weston, of the Geological Survey of Canada, have dis- 

 closed, near the head of the Bay de Chaleurs, some interesting 

 exposures of Devonian beds rising from beneath the Lower Carboni- 

 ferous (Bonaventure formation of Logan). In some of these beds, 

 probably Middle Erian, there are abundant remains of Psilophyton, 

 similar to those of Gaspe Bay ; but others, which are evidently 

 upper members of the Erian system, contain fossil fishes referred by 

 Mr. Whiteaves to the genera Pterichthys, Tristicliopterus , Phanero- 

 pleuron, and Cheirolepis. In the same beds with these fishes occur 

 fronds of three species of Ferns, of which I have myself collected 

 specimens in a visit to the locality in July last, though the best 

 examples have been found by Mr. Foord. One of the species is an 

 Archceopteris, allied to A. hibernica and A. Jacksoni, but differing 

 in the details of the fructification, which is well preserved {A. magna- 

 censis*, MS.). Another is a magnificent fern, referable in the mean- 

 time to the provisional genus Cyclopteris, and identical with that 

 figured by Lesquereux in the Report of the Geological Survey of 

 Penns}dvania (new series) as Archceopteris obtusa. Lesquereux's 

 specimen is from the Chemung or Catskill of Montrose, Pennsylvania. 

 A third species is that described by me, in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 vols, xviii. & xix., as Cyclopteris Brounii. In the specimens from 

 Bay de Chaleurs the large flabellate fronds of this fern are seen to 

 be attached in dense groups to a rhizome or slender stem, showing 

 that this plant was either, as I supposed in regard to the specimens 

 which I described from Peny, in Maine, a low-growing ground-fern 

 or an epiphyte. 



(3) In the " discussion " of my paper I observe a statement to the 

 effect that Asteropteris noveboracensis may be a lycopodiaceous plant. 

 In reply, I think it sufficient to refer to the description and figure, 

 but may add that I have had occasion in previous papers to refer to 

 the remarkable abundance and variety of ferns in the islands of the 

 Devonian sea. In accordance with this, the beds near Milo, New 

 York, in which Asteropteris occurs, abound in stipes of large ferns, 



* Cape Maguach is the locality. 



