Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/268

166 ration of the wood into wedges is an evidence of their having existed, that the difference in minute structure between Sigillaria and Stigmaria involves no serious difficulty if the former be regarded as allied to Cycadeaceae, and, further, that we do not know how many of the Stigmarioe belong to Sigillaria proper, or to Favularia, or to such forms as Clathraria and Leioderma, which may have been more nearly allied to Lepidophloios, that the fruit figured by Goldenberg as that of Sigillaria is more probably that of Lepidophloios, or may be a male catkin with pollen, and that he has found Trigonocarpa scattered around the trunks of Sigillarioe and on the surface of the soil in which they grew. He agreed with Mr. Carruthers in regarding Mr. Binney's Sigillaria vascularis as allied to Lepidodendron.

Discussion.

Prof. Morris thought that Clathraria and Lepidophloios ought to be discriminated from the Sigillarioe, as being rather more nearly allied to cycadeaceous plants, especially the former. He pointed out the manner in which certain vascular bundles communicating between the centre of the stem and the bark in Sigillaria and allied genera might be mistaken for medullary rays.

3. Note on some new Animal Remains from the Carboniferous and Devonian of Canada. By Principal Dawson, F.R.S., F.G.S., Montreal. (The publication of this paper is deferred.) [Abstract.]

The author described the characters presented by the lower jaw of an Amphibian, of which a cast had occurred in the coarse sandstone of the Coal-formation between Bagged Beef and the Joggins Coalmine. It measured 6 inches in length ; its surface was marked on the lower and posterior part with a network of ridges enclosing rounded depressions. The anterior part of the jaw had contained about 16 teeth, some of which remained in the matrix. These were stout, conical, and blunt, with large pulp-cavities, and about 32 longitudinal striae corresponding to the same number of folds of dentine. The author stated that this jaw resembled most closely those of Baphetes and Dendrerpeton, but more especially the former. He regarded it as distinct from Baphetes planiceps, and proposed for it the name of B. minor. If distinct, this raises the number of species of Amphibia from the Coal-measures of Nova Scotia to nine.

The author also noticed some insect-remains found by him in slabs containing Sphenophyllum. They were referred by Mr. Scudder to the Blattariae.

From the Devonian beds of Gaspe the author stated that he had obtained a small species of Cephalaspis, the first yet detected in America. With it were spines of Machairacanthus and remains of some other fishes. At Gaspe he had also obtained a new species of Psilophyton, several trunks of Prototaxites, and a species of Cyclostigma.