THE EKIAN OR DEVONIAN FORESTS. 



97 



committal, is therefore, I think, to be preferred. In my " Acadian 

 Geology," and in my " Report on the Geology of Prince Edward 

 Island,"' I have given reasons for believing that the foliage of some 

 at least of these trees was that known as Walchia, and that they may 

 have borne nutlets in the manner of Taxine trees (Trigonocarpum, 

 &c). Grand d'Eury has recently suggested that some of them may 

 have belonged to Cordaites, or to plants included in that somewhat 

 varied and probably artificial group. 



The earliest discovery of trees of this kind in the Erian of 

 America was that of Matthew and Hartt, who found large trunks, 

 which I afterwards described as Dadoxylon Ouangondianum, in the 

 Erian sandstone of St. John, New Brunswick, hence named by those 

 geologists the " Dadoxylon sandstone." A little later, similar wood 

 was found by Prof. Hall and Prof. Newberry in the Hamilton group 

 of New York and Ohio, and the allied wood of the genus Ormoxylon 

 was obtained by Prof. Hall in the Portage group of the former 

 State. These woods proved to be specifically distinct from that of 

 St. John, and were named by me D. Haiti, D. Newberry i, and Or- 

 moxylon Erianum. The three species of Dadoxylon agreed in hav- 

 ing composite medullary rays, and would thus belong to the group 

 Palceoxylon of Brongniart. In the case of Ormoxylon this character 

 could not be very distinctly ascertained, but the medullary rays 

 appeared to be simple. 



I am indebted to Prof. J. M. Clarke, of Amherst College, Massa- 

 chusetts, for some well-preserved specimens of another species from 

 the Genesee shale of Canandaigua, New York. They show small 

 steins or branches, with a cellular pith surrounded with wood of 

 coniferous type, showing two to three rows of slit-formed, bordered 

 pores in hexagonal borders. The medullary sheath consists of 

 pseudo-scalarif orm and reticulated fibres ; but the most remarkable 

 feature of this wood is the structure of the medullary rays, which 

 are very frequent, but short and simple, sometimes having as few 

 as four cells superimposed. This is a character not before observed 

 in coniferous trees of so great age, and allies this Middle Erian 

 form with some Carboniferous woods which have been supposed to 

 belong to Cordaites or Sigillaria. In any case this structure is new, 

 and I have named the species Dadoxylon ClarJcii, after its discoverer. 

 The specimens occur, according to Prof. Clarke, in a calcareous layer 

 which is filled with the minute shells of Styliola fissurella of Hall, 

 believed to be a Pteropod ; and containing also shells of Goniatites 

 and Gfyroceras. The stems found are only a few inches in diameter, 

 but may be branches of larger trees. 



