q. Ten feet thickness of white limestone; which is completely filled with fragments of an undeterminable genus of shells. This rock is composed of carbonate of lime 83.20, carbonate of magnanese 11.20, and of silica 5.60 parts. It may be wrought as a marble in small blocks. r. Nineteen feet of red and variegated sandstone. S. Twelve feet of white limestone, similar to q. t. Twenty-eight feet of red and variegated sandstones; of which two feet thickness are highly indurated. u. Trappean beds, indurated breccias and sandstones of unknown thickness, dipping 45 degrees northerly. These rocks pass into the metamorphic slates so common in Machiasport. The total thickness of the rocks mentioned above cannot be far from 550 feet. We do not know of any place east of Machiasport where these red sandstones reappear, unless it be in an unrecognizable form. Red Sandstones of Perry and vicinity. In the vicinity of Perry there is a fine deposit of red sandstones and conglomerates which indisputably belongs to the highest part of the Devonian series. Owing to the similarity of these rocks to the Connecticut River Sandstones, it was formerly supposed that they belonged to the New Red Sandstone, a Mesozoic rock overlying the coal. In consequence of this opinion extensive borings were made in them with the expectation of finding beds of coal in the underlying rocks; the explorers expecting to find the coalbearing rocks immediately beneath the overlying formation. Even this expectation would be unauthorized if the sandstone belonged to the New Red Group, because we find frequently the rocks underlying the sandstones, as at Pigeon Hill and vicinity, where fossils of a Silurian type predominate. The coal rocks may be wanting even when the overlying formation is present. In proof of the Devonian age of this group of rocks we may in the first place present the opinions of geologists. Dr. Jackson, who at first regarded these rocks as Triassic (or New Red Sandstone,) from mineralogical resemblances, now gives it as his opinion that they belong to the Old Red Sandstone or Devonian series. Professor W. B. Rogers was, perhaps, the first to refer them to the Upper Devonian, upon the ground that the Cyclopteris, a species of fern found in them, was related closely to the C. Hibernicus of the Upper Devonian of Scotland and Ireland. Prof. J. W. Newberry confirmed this view. Dr. J. W. Dawson of McGill College in Montreal has so wonderfully accumulated the evidence of the Devonian age of these sandstones that the proof of their Devonian age need be disputed no longer. Prof. Agassiz, from an examination of a few Calamites from these rocks in New Brunswick, concluded that the rock must be Triassic. He thought the Calamites of New Brunswick had a more elongated stem, fewer vertical furrows, and a greater distance between the joints, than the Carboniferous and Devonian forms. These were almost the only plants known to exist in these roc's at the time of this examination. The vast number of species since figured and described by Dawson, all of a Devonian type, unless they more nearly resemble the plants of the Lower Carboniferous series, must surely outweigh the evidence of a few imperfect Calamites. In the second place, we would refer to the character of the plants themselves, for proof of their Devonian age. For these statements, we depend entirely upon the researches of Dr. Dawson. In May, 1861, he published in the Canadian Naturalist, descriptions of 21 species of Devonian plants from the sandstones of Perry, Gaspe and St. John. Since then, he has pushed the investigation further, and is now prepared to describe at least 60 species of Devonian plants from these three localities, and also from the Chemung group of New York. It is not merely the fact that these species all have a Devonian aspect, but that the same species of plants which occur at acknowledged Devonian localities in this country, as at Gaspe and in New York, are also found at St. John and Perry. Lepidodendron Gaspianum, Daw., is found at Gaspe, Perry and in New York. Psilophyton princeps, Daw., is found at Gaspe, Perry and St. John. These are both thoroughly Devonian plants. The Cyclopteris Jacksoni, Daw., is found both at Perry and St. John, and is compared, as above, with the C. Hibernicus of Ireland, etc. The Sphenopteris Hitchcocki, Daw., a new species common to Perry and St. John, may be compared with Unger's S. petiolata from the Devonian of Thuringia. A score of similar examples might be presented, were it necessary.. We collected a large number of fossil plants from the sandstones of Perry, the past summer, of which three species were new. This makes eleven well determined species from Perry. The following are their names: a Sternbergia, probably belonging to the Dadoxylon Onangondianum, Daw., an Aporoxylon, Lepidodendron Gaspianum, Daw., Lepidostrobus Richardsoni, Daw., L. a new species, a Megaphyton, Psilophiton princeps, Daw., Leptophlæum rhombicum, Daw., Cyclopteris Jacksoni, Daw., C. Browniana, Daw., and Sphenopteris Hitchcocki, Daw. The Sternbergia are the remains of the pith of certain species of coniferous plants, so imperfect that it is impossible to determine even the genus of the plant to which they belong from the speci mens alone. They appear as small bits of stems crossed by a multitude of fine parallel lines. The Aporoxyton and Leptophloum are coniferous plants, like our pines and spruces. A Sternbergia of the latter occurs in Perry. The Lepidodendron, Lepidostrobus, Psilophyton and Megaphyton, are Lycopodiaceous plants, or similar to the ground and running pines, so common in our forests. The Cyclopteris and Sphenopteris were tropical forms. We hope in future to present figures of all these plants. We give here Dr. Dawson's descriptions of the three new species, which he has so kindly prepared for our report. "1. Leptophlæum rhombicum, nov. gen. and sp. Stem cylindrical, with thin bark and a very large pith of the Sternbergia type. Surface marked with contiguous rhombic areoles, each with a single vascular scar a little above the centre. Decorticated stem with spirally arranged punctures in slight depressions. The specimens of this plant, discovered at Perry by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, consist of fragments of stems, not exceeding an inch in diameter, and considerably flattened by pressure. Traces of the bases of leaves are attached to some of them. In one specimen, represented in Fig. 3, the upper part of the stem is tapering, and shows indications of distant rhombic scars and a transverse wrinkling or jointing. This I suppose to be a younger and immature portion of the stem, showing the structure of the transversed wrinkled pith, as well as the imperfectly developed leaf scars. The plant was probably of rapid growth, with a very large Sternbergia pith, a thin woody cylinder, and a still thinner bark. In the arrangement of its areoles, it resembles such plants as Lepidodendron tetragonum, Ulodendron minus and Lematofloyos crapicaule, but it is evidently generically distinct from them all, in the enormous dévelopment of its pith and in the single vascular scars in its areoles. It is interesting to observe that in the younger portion of the stem, even when clothed with the bark, the appearances presented are simply those of a Sternbergia. Fig. 4 shows one of the rhombic scars enlarged. FIG 5. Cyclopteris Browniana, sp. nov. Pin nules large, cuneate, with distant nerves once dichotomous and waved margins. Several fragments from Perry and St. John have indicated the presence of a large Cyclopteris like leaf; but a specimen collected by Prof. Hitchcock is the first that shows its character with tolerable distinctness. It is named after Mr. Jethro Brown of Perry, one of the earliest and most successful explorers of the plant-bearing beds at that place. Cyclopteris Browniana. sp. nor distant -d marr Sence the Ex erable & ethra plorers Sphenopteris Hitchcocki. Sphenopteris Hitchcocki, sp. nov. Rhachis straight, stout, rugose; giving off branches or pinnae which ramify dichotomously, and terminate in minute obovate pinnules. Fig. 6 represents this plant of its natural size; and one of the pinnules, magnified, is represented on the right hand side. This beautiful plant has the aspect of an excurrent stem rather than of a frond, and its nervation cannot be made out. It is evidently allied to such species as S. petiolota, Goeppert, S. refracta, Goep., and S. devonica, Unger, belonging to the group or subgenus Davallioides characteristic of the Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous. Scattered pinnules, apparently of this species, occur abundantly in the plant-bearing shales of St. John, N. B. The above species are interesting and important additions to the |