Land Plants of the Lower Silurian — Lesquereux. 45 



"Accordingly, it is in Gaspe that, as yet, we have the only link of con- 

 nection of the Erian (Devonian) flora with that of the Silurian period. 

 In the marine limestone of Cape Gaspe, holding shells and corals of 

 Lower Helderberg age, along with some indeterminable plants, prob- 

 ably Fucoids, we have, as already stated, fragmental steins and dis- 

 tinct rhizomes of Pdlophyton, some of them showing the scalariform 

 axis well preserved. These fragments must have been drifted from 

 the land; and, as in the immediately succeeding Lower Devonian 

 beds, Pulophyton is associated with Prototaxites, Arthrostigma and Cala- 

 mites, but is the most abundant of the whole, it is not unlikely that 

 in the Upper Silurian land it was associated with plants of these 

 genera." In Europe, too, the first remains of land plants have been 

 found in the Lower Devonian, and, as yet, only a single specimen of a 

 Sigillaria, described by Guppert as S. Hammannana. It was found as 

 early as 1806, by Hausmann, during his geological exploration of 

 Scandinavia, in a red Devonian quartzite, just above strata of the Upper 

 Silurian, where Favosites iwlymorpha Avas identified. Guppert, from 

 whom these details are quoted, remarks that, on account of the pres- 

 ence of this species of Favosites, Murchison admitted these strata to 

 be Lower Devonian. 



With the exception of the Lebanon sj^ecimen, the geological forma- 

 tions of the United States have not afforded, as yet, any records of land 

 plants earlier than those of the Lower Devonian. In Ohio and Ken- 

 tucky vegetable remains of this kind have been found at diflfei-ent 

 places, mostly in concretions, including trunks or fragments of wood 

 representing species of Conifers of the section of the Araiicarice, 

 together with Lycopodiaceous plants : Stigmaria, Sigillaria, and Lejn- 

 dodendron. In Pennsylvania a Lepidodendron, L. Priraa^imm Rogers, 

 and a Sigillaria have been obtained from the same horizon. These 

 fragments are as yet rare, and have not been satisfactorily determined, 

 on account of the imperfect character of the specimens, mostly petri- 

 fied pieces of wood, whose structui-e is studied with difliculty. It is 

 certain, however; that in the Middle Devonian we have representatives 

 of three distinct groups of vegetables : the Cellular Cryptogams, in 

 a quantity of marine plants, the Vascular Cryptogams, in Lycopodi- 

 aceous plants; Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, etc., and the Pha^nogamous 

 Gymnosperms, in the Conifers. 



Strophomena alternata. — In the note referring to the locality and i:)osi- 

 tion of the Strophomena alternata, page 91 of the "Ohio Paleontology," 

 there occurs the following mistake, to wit : " In Ohio, none of its varie- 

 ties occur much below the tops of the hills at Cincinnati." The fact is 

 that some of its varieties occur at all elevations above low water-mark. 



