180 PROCEEDINGS : BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
• Of late years the opinion has been gaining ground that the con¬ 
glomerates, at least, should be referred to the Carboniferous. This 
belief is based largely upon the strong lithological resemblance 
between the Boston Basin series and the Carboniferous conglom¬ 
erates of the neighboring Norfolk County and Narragansett Basins. 
The argument from analogy is not strictly valid, for it is quite pos¬ 
sible that very similar conglomerates might be formed at widely 
different horizons, particularly where the sources of supply remain 
the same. In fact, as has been pointed out, our glacial material, if 
worked over by the sea, would yield a deposit essentially like the 
Roxbury conglomerate. 
Until recently the idea of the Carboniferous age of these sedi¬ 
ments has been practically unsupported by fossil evidence. Some 
years ago Mr. J. B. Woodworth found, in the conglomerate near 
Franklin Park, a fragment which he regarded as a portion of a fossil 
plant, similar to forms occurring in the sandstones of the Narragan¬ 
sett Basin. Not then appreciating the importance of his discovery, 
he did not preserve the specimen. Other observers have reported 
the discovery of fossils in the conglomerates and associated slates, 
but no identifiable forms have ever been produced. 
During the past year the writers have made a careful search over 
a considerable portion of the area. Traces of possibly organic 
remains have been found in the slates and in the quartzite pebbles 
of the conglomerate, but none of these have had any determinative 
value. Recently, however, a sandy zone near the top of the con¬ 
glomerates has yielded fossils of a much more satisfactory nature. 
These are believed to be casts and moulds of the trunks or roots of 
tree-like forms. They are cylindrical in form, with circular cross- 
sections. The largest has a maximum diameter of four and eight 
tenths inches. They are marked by somewhat irregular transverse 
wrinklings (see Plate 1), which sometimes pass entirely around the 
form, sometimes die out, or become united. The organic matter 
has entirely disappeared. The casts are composed of compact sand¬ 
stone, which is indistinguishable from that of the rock in which they 
lie. The bedding of the sandstone is obscure, but is believed to lie 
at right angles with the axes of the fossils. 
The species to which these forms should be referred cannot at 
present be determined. The genus, even, is highly problematical. 
The only markings which are at all characteristic are the transverse 
wrinklings referred to above. Quite similar wrinklings appear 
