Mr. Matthew states in reference to the mode of occurrence of this interesting species, that the wood is always in the state of anthracite or graphite, or mineralized by iron pyrites, calc spar or silica. The pith is usually calcified, but in pyritised trunks it often appears as a sandstone cast with the external wrinkles of Sternbergia. The pith is often eccentric, and specimens occur with two or three centres; but these either consist of several trunks in juxtaposition, or are branching stems. The annual layers vary from th to th of an inch in thickness, and adjoining layers sometimes vary from th to th of an inch. The trunks of this species appear to have had a strong tendency to split in decay along the medullary rays, and in consequence the cross section often presents a radiating structure of

Fig. 5.-Calamites transitionis. (p. 168.) alternating black lines representing the wedges of wood, and white rays of calc spar. The heart wood seems to have had its cell

walls much thickened, and in consequence to have been more durable than that nearer the surface. They appear to have been drift trees, and to have been much worn and abraded before they were imbedded in sediment.

2. Calamites transitionis.-Goeppert.

(Fig. 5-previous page.)

The specimen figured appears to belong to the species above named, which occurs in the Devonian of Silesia, and also in the Lower Coal Formation. It is a cast in sandstone, showing merely the decorticated surface in an indifferent state of preservation. Specimens of this species were shown to me in 1857, by the late Prof. Robb, and were the first well characterized plants from the St. John rocks, that had come under my notice.

3. Asterophyllites parvula.—S. n.

(a) Natural size. (b) Portion magnified. (c) Stem natural size. Description.-Branchlets slender. Leaves 5 or 6 in a whorl, subulate,

curving upward, half a line to a line long. Internodes equal to length of leaves or less. Stems ribbed, with scars of verticillate branchlets at the nodes.

This delicate little species is found abundantly in graphitic shale, on the surfaces of which its branchlets and leaves appear as shining films of graphite, as if delicately drawn with a black lead pencil. It can be extracted from the shale only in fragments; but associated with these are remains of stems about a line in thickness, with about 16 ribs and prominent nodes with little tubercles indicating the attachment of branchlets.

4. Cordaites (Pycnophyllum) Robbii.-S. n. Description.-Leaves elongated, parallel-sided, an inch or more in width, with very delicate equal longitudinal striæ.

This is the characteristic plant of the graphitic shale above mentioned, to which its leaves, converted into graphite, aid in

giving a thin lamination. For this reason I desire to dedicate it to my late lamented friend, Prof. Robb, who has been called away in the midst of labours that would have added much to our knowledge of the geology of New Brunswick. I have seen no specimens of this leaf entire; but it appears to have been a broad lanceolate or oblong leaf, resembling the common Cordaites of the coal measures, but more delicate in its striation. Mr. Matthews has found specimens 3 inches in width.

The generic name Cordaites as used here, may require some explanation. I employ it as applied by Unger to the Flabellaria borassifolia of Corda, which I regard as the type of all those broad parallel-veined elongated leaves, which have by various authors been placed in the genera Pycnophyllum, Noeggerathia, Poacites, and Flabellaria. The first of these names. proposed by Brongniart, I regard as a synonym of Cordaites; but I have no certain information as to its priority to that name. The second, Noeggerathia, was originally applied to flabellate and pinnate leaves, quite distinct from that now described.* It has by some authors been restricted to a genus of ferns allied to Cyclopteris and by others still included in that genus; and latterly it is used by Goeppert, and by Unger,§ to include parallel veined leaves, like the present species, but placed among monocotyledonous plants, and said to be pinnate, though there is no evidence of this in several of the species, some of which may possibly belong to Cordaites, and others, as N. tenuistriata, (Goeppert,) are probably stipes of ferns allied to my Cyclopteris Acadica. Poacites, if P. cocoina (L. and H.) is considered its type, cannot include these leaves, and Flabellaria is now restricted to leaves of palms, quite dissimilar from Cordaites.

By the use of the generic name which I have selected for the above reasons, I hope to avoid all the confusion in which the nomenclature of leaves of this type has long been involved. I do

• Lindley and Hutton, Fossil Flora. It is to these leaves, represented by N. foliosa and N. flabellata, that the name properly belongs, and it appears desirable that they should be more distinctly separated on the one hand from ferns of the genus Cyclopteris, and on the other from plants like that now under consideration.

† Lesquereux in Rogers' Pennsylvania. See also Unger, Genera et Species, and Goeppert, Gattnung.

Flora des Uebergangsgebirges, and Flora der Silurischen, &c. § Unger Palæontologie des Thuringer waldes.

not express any opinion as to their affinities, any farther than to state my belief that they present no important point of structural difference from Corduites borassifolia, and that this plant as described by Corda,* has a stem closely resembling Lomatofloyos, and therefore of the same type of structure with Ulodendron and Lepidodendron.

5. Cordaites angustifolia.-S. n. Description.-Leaves elongated, one-tenth to one-fourth of an inch wide, with delicate equal parallel striæ.

This leaf differs from the last in its proportionate narrowness and decided striation. No specimen showing its extremities has been obtained, in consequence of which, I cannot determine whether it has the retuse apex mentioned as one of the characters of Unger's Noeggerathia graminifolia, which in form and dimensions it much resembles. A very similar leaf, probably the same species, occurs in the Devonian and Upper Silurian of Gaspé, and is represented in Fig. 11. It was noticed in my paper on the plants of that region, as probably a Noeggerathia.

6. Sphenophyllum antiquum.-S. n.

Description.-Leaflets cuneate, one-eighth of an inch wide at apex, and

less than one-fourth of an inch long. Nerves three, bifurcating equally near the base, the divisions terminating at the apices of six obtuse acuminate teeth.

This is the first occurrence, in so far as I am aware, of the genus Sphenophyllum in beds older than the carboniferous system. Leaflets only were found, so that it is impossible to state the arrangement of these on the stem; but the form and nerva

Flora der Vorwelt; under genus Flabellaria,

tion of the leaflets are well defined. Under the microscope the nervures have a striated appearance, and there is a more delicate longitudinal striation visible in the epidermis of the leaf. I may remark here, that though in a somewhat altered rock, and to a cursory glance indistinct, the leaves and other delicate vegetable organs in the shales of St. John, are found under the microscope to present an unusual degree of perfection in their finer markings. They must in the first instance have been imbedded in a quite unchanged condition, and but for the alteration which the rocks have sustained, would have furnished remarkably perfect speciThe species above described approaches most nearly to S. erosum of the coal measures, but differs in its proportions.

mens.

7. Lycopodites Matthewi.-S. n.

a

Fig. 8.-Lycopodites Matthewi.

(a) and (b) Natural size. (c) Magnified. (d) Lepidophyllum. Description.-Leaflets one veined, narrowly ovate-acuminate, one-tenth to one-fourth of an inch in length, somewhat loosely placed on a very slender stem, apparently in a pentastichous manner.

This pretty little species is abundantly displayed in graphite, in the Cordaites shale I have already referred to. With it are found the little scales or Lepidophylla, (Fig. 8, d.) which may possibly have belonged to its fructification.

In addition to the above plants, there is in the sandstone containing conifers, an impression of the bark of a plant which may have been a Sigillaria. In the Cordaites shale there are many indeterminable fragments, among which are a small fern leaf, apparently a Sphenopteris like S. Devonica, Unger, a terminal pinnule of a Cyclopteris, which appears to be the same with that described below from Perry, leaves having the appearance of those of Sigillaria, (Cyperites), and stems which may belong to Psilophyton. There are also some remarkable fragments which