THE ERIAN OR DEVONIAN FORESTS. 



91 



The only species known to me in the Devonian of Europe is the 

 Caulopteris Peachii of Salter, figured in the Quarterly Journal of 

 the Geological Society " for 1858. The original specimen of this I 

 had an opportunity of seeing in London, through the kindness of 

 Mr. Etheridge, and have no doubt that it is the stem of a small 

 arborescent fern, allied to the genus Caulopteris, of the coal forma- 

 tion. 



In my paper on the Devonian of Eastern America (" Quarterly 

 Journal of the Geological Society," 1862), I mentioned a plant found 

 by Mr. Richardson at Perry, as possibly a species of Megaphyton, 

 using that term to denote those stems of tree-ferns which have the 

 leaf-scars in two vertical series ; but the specimen was obscure, and 

 I have not yet obtained any other. 



More recently, in 1869, Prof. Hall placed in my hands an inter- 

 esting collection from Gilboa, New York, and Madison County, New 

 York, including two trunks surrounded by aerial roots, which I have 

 described as Psaronius textilis and P. Erianus, in my " Revision of 

 the Devonian Flora," read before the Royal Society.* In the same 

 collection were two very large petioles, Phachiopteris gigantea and 

 R. palmata, which I have suggested may have belonged to tree-ferns. 



My determination of the species of Psaronius, above mentioned, 

 has recently been completely confirmed by the discovery on the part 

 of Mr. Lockwood, of Gilboa, of the upper part of one of these stems, 

 with its leaf-scars preserved and petioles attached, and also by some 

 remarkable specimens obtained by Prof. Newberry, of New York, 

 from the Corniferous limestone of Ohio, which indicate the exist- 

 ence there of three species of tree-ferns, one of them with aerial 

 roots similar to those of the Gilboa specimens. The whole of these 

 specimens Dr. Newberry has kindly allowed me to examine, and has 

 permitted me to describe the Gi]boa specimen, as connected with 

 those which I formerly studied in Prof. Hall's collections. The 

 specimens from Ohio he has himself named, but allows me to notice 

 1 them here by way of comparison with the others. I shall add some 

 notes on specimens found with the Gilboa ferns. 



It may be further observed that the Gilboa specimens are from 

 a bed containing erect stumps of tree-ferns, in the Chemung group 

 of the Upper Devonian, while those from Ohio are from a marine 

 limestone, belonging to the lower part of the Middle Devonian. 



1. Caulopteris Lockwoodi, Dawson. — Trunk from two to three 



* Abstract in " Proceedings of the Royal Society," May, 1870 ; also 

 "Report on Erian Plants of Canada," 1871. 



