THE ERIAN OR DEVONIAN FORESTS. 



93 



fronds were evidently different from those of Archceopteris* a genus 

 characteristic of the same beds, but of very different habit of growth. 

 This accords with the fact that there is in Prof. Hall's collection a 

 mass of fronds of Cyclopteris (Archceopteris) Jacksoni, so arranged 

 as to make it probable that the plant was an herbaceous fern, pro- 

 ducing tufts of fronds on short stems in the ordinary way. The 

 obscurity of the leaf-scars may render it doubtful whether the plant 

 above described should be placed in the genus Caulopteris or in Stem- 

 rnatopteris ; but it appears most nearly allied to the former. The 

 genus is at present, of course, a provisional one ; but I have thought 

 it only justice to the diligent labours of Mr. Lockwood to name 

 this curious and interesting fossil Caulopteris Lockwoodi. 



I have elsewhere remarked on the fact that trunks, and petioles, 

 and pinnules of ferns are curiously dissociated in the Devonian beds 

 — an effect of water-sorting, characteristic of a period in which the 

 conditions of deposition were so varied. Another example of this 

 is, that in the sandstones of Gaspe Bay, which have not as yet af- 

 forded any example of fronds of ferns, there are compressed trunks, 

 which Mr. Lockwood's specimens allow me at least to conjecture 

 may have belonged to tree-ferns, although none of them are suffi- 

 ciently perfect for description. 



Mr. Lockwood's collection includes specimens of Psaronius tex- 

 tiles ; and in addition to these there are remains of erect stems some- 

 what different in character, yet possibly belonging to the higher parts 

 of the same species of tree-fern. One of these is a stem crushed in 

 such a manner that it does not exhibit its form with any distinctness, 

 but surrounded by smooth, cylindrical roots, radiating from it in 

 bundles, proceeding at first horizontally, and then curving down- 

 ward, and sometimes terminating in rounded ends. They resemble 

 in form and size the aerial roots of Psaronius Erianus ; and I believe 

 them to be similar roots from a higher part of the stem, and some 

 of them young and not prolonged sufficiently far to reach the ground. 

 This specimen would thus represent the stem of P. Erianus at a 

 higher level than those previously found. We can thus in imagina- 

 tion restore the trunk and crown of this once graceful tree-fern, 

 though we have not the detail of its fronds. Mr. Lockwood's 

 collections also contain a specimen of the large fern-petiole which 

 I have named Rhachiopteris punctata. My original specimen 

 was obtained by Prof. Hall from the same horizon in New York. 



* The genus to which the well-known Cyclopteris {Adiantites) ffiber- 

 nicus of the Devonian of Ireland belongs. 

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