On new Tree Ferns and other Fossils from the Devonian

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Abstract
O f the numerous ferns now known in the Middle and Upper Devonian of North America, a great number are small and delicate species, which were probably herbaceous; but there are other species which may have been tree ferns. Little definite information, however, has, until recently, been obtained with regard to their habit of growth. The only species known to me in the Devonian of Europe is the Caulopteris Peachii of Salter, figured in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for 1858. The original specimen of this I had an opportunity of seeing in London, through the kindness of Mr. Etheridge, and have no doubt that it is the stem of a small arborescent fern, allied to the genus Caulopteris of the Coal-formation. In my paper on the Devonian of Eastern America (Quart. Journ. Geol. Society, 1862) I mentioned a plant found by Mr. Richardson at Perry, as possibly a species of Megaphyton , using that term to denote those stems of tree ferns which have the leaf-scars in two vertical series; but the specimen was obscure, and I have not yet obtained any other. More recently, in 1869, Prof. Hall placed in my hands an interesting collection from Gilboa, New York, and Madison County, New York, including two trunks surrounded by aerial roots, which I have described as Psaronius textilis and P. erianus in my ‘Revision of the Devonian Flora,’ now in the hands of the Royal Society*. In the same collection were two very large petioles, Rhachiopteris giglantea and

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