On Fossil Plants from the Devonian Rocks of Canada

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Abstract
I n 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 terrestrial origin, 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 structure†. 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 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

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