Handbook of Geological Terms; by David Page, F.G.S.,..... Evenings at the Microscope; by P. H. Gosse, F.R.S... Dura Den; a Monograph of the Yellow Sandstone; by the Rev. John Anderson, D.D., F.G.S., &c.,. . . . . . Nuggets from the oldest Diggings; or Researches in the Mosaic Notes of a Clerical Furlough; by Robert Buchanan, D.D.,... 159 A first lesson in Natural History; by Actoa. (Mrs. Agassiz.) 209 A Manual of Scientific and Practical Agriculture for the School Report of the Geological Survey of Canada for the year 1858, 326 The Zoologist, June, 1860.-Van Voorst, London,.. Acadian Geology, and a Supplementary Chapter thereto,..... 450 Note on a specimen of Neaera, collected by Mr. R. S. Fowler, 461 Notes on Relics of the Red Indians of Newfoundland, collected Letter from Mr. D. W. Beadle, St. Catherines, C.W.,................... 215 Report of meeting at Aberdeen,...... ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,..... ARTICLE I.-On FOSSIL PLANTS from the DEVONIAN ROCKS of CANADA. By J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.G.S., Principal of McGill College, Montreal. (From the Proceedings of the Geological Society of London.) IN 1843-44, Sir W. E. Logan ascertained, and published in his Report for the latter year, the occurrence of a series of beds of Devonian age in the Peninsula of Gaspé, Lower Canada, containing fossil plants, apparently of the land, and some of them evidently in situ. Nothing was done toward the precise determination and description of these remains until 1856, when Sir William kindly permitted the writer of this paper to examine his collection, and to describe before the American Association for the Advancement of Science the most interesting specimen contained in it-a fossil trunk exhibiting a very remarkable and previously undescribed coniferous structuret. The other specimens in the collection were so fragmentary or obscure, that it was not deemed expedient to attempt their description before studying them (as all fossil plants should, when practicable, be studied) in the rocks in which they occur. With this view I visited Gaspé in the past * Report of Progress of Canadian Geological Survey, 1844, p. 36, and Appendix. † Proceedings of American Association, 1856, p. 174. CANADIAN NAT. 1 VOL. V. No. summer, and examined the localities indicated on the plans and sections of the Geological Survey. The facts and specimens thus obtained will probably be fully described and illustrated in one of the forthcoming Decades of Canadian Fossils; and in the meantime I propose to notice some of the species observed, which appear to be of especial interest in the present state of our general knowledge of the Devonian flora. Before proceeding to these descriptions, it may be necessary to state that the deposit in which the fossils occur consists of sandstone and shale, of various colours and textures, with some conglomerate and thin-bedded coarse limestone, and a seam of bituminous coal, one inch in thickness. The whole series is estimated by Sir W. E. Logan at 7000 feet of vertical thickness. It rests on Upper Silurian rocks, and underlies unconformably the conglomerates which here form the base of the Carboniferous system. Some of the beds, especially in the lower part of the series, contain marine fossils of Lower Devonian forms, which are now in process of examination by Mr. Billings of the Geological Survey. The greater part of the beds are, however, destitute of marine fossils, and present appearances indicative of shallow water and even of land-surfaces. Some of the species of plants occur throughout the whole thickness; but the bed of coal and most of the plants in situ are found in the lower and middle portions of the series. Detailed sections and descriptions of the beds will be found in the Report above referred to. 1. PSILOPHYTON, gen. nov. (Figs. 1 & 2.) Lycopodiaceous plants, branching dichotomously, and covered with interrupted ridges or closely appressed minute leaves; the stems springing from a rhizoma having circular areoles, sending forth cylindrical rootlets. Internal structure: an axis of scalariform vessels, surrounded by a cylinder of parenchymatous cells and by an outer cortical cylinder of elongated woody cells (prosenchyma). Fructification probably in lateral masses, protected by leafy bracts. The most remarkable and interesting plant of the formation is one which, I believe, has frequently been observed and described elsewhere from fragmentary specimens, but which occurs in the Fig. 1.-Psilophyton princeps. a, rhizome; b, stem; c, termination of branches; d, vernation e, fructification; f, restoration. Gaspé sections in a state of perfection unusual with paleozoic plants. It is characterized by slender, bifurcating, ridged stems, proceeding from a horizontal rhizoma, which sends forth numerous rootlets. The rhizomata, evidently in situ, clothe some beds of indurated clay with a mat of creeping and occasionally bifurcating cylindrical stems, filling the beds below with their vertical rootlets. They attain a diameter of an inch or more, though usually smaller, and a length of at least three feet. They are irregularly dotted with minute linear punctures, the marks probably of ramenta; and at intervals there are circular areoles with central pits, like those of Stigmaria, but irregularly disposed, and giving origin to the roots, which, however, unlike those of Stigmaria, subdivide in descending into the soil. Apart from the stems, these rhizomata might be included in the genus Karstenia or Halonia, or even as abnormal species in Stigmaria (fig. 1 a,). The aërial stems vary from a fourth to a tenth of an inch in diameter at their origin, rise obliquely from the rhizoma, and bifurcate very regularly. The extreme points divide nearly at right angles, and in some, probably young, branches the ultimate branchlets bend into a spiral curve with a somewhat unilateral arrangement of the leaflets. In the shale overlying the small coal-seam above-mentioned, there are immense numbers of these little branchlets, rolled so closely as to resemble spiral shells They probably indicate a circinate vernation like that of ferns. (See figs. 1 b, c, d.) The surface of the stems is very smooth and glossy, quite destitute of scars, but marked with numerous interrupted ridges spirally arranged, and sometimes seen to project a little at the upper ends, as if rudimentary leaves. This leaf-like character is more distinct toward the extremities of the branches; but the leaves are not sufficiently well preserved to show anything more than that they are slender and acicular. The greater part of the specimens are flattened, with the epidermis alone preserved in a coaly state; but a few fragments were found with the internal structure remaining. It consists of a slender axis of scalariform vessels, surrounded by a space now occupied by calcspar, but showing in parts the remains of a loose cellular tissue. Externally to this is a cylinder of well-preserved, elongated, woody cells, without distinguishable pores, but with traces of very delicate spiral fibres. (Fig. 2 g, h, i, k.) The structure and external appearance above described indicate affinities with the Lycopodiacea, and especially with the genus |