286 The Ottawa Naturalist [March 



SOIREES. 



The fourth soiree of the Ottawa Field-NaturaHsts' Club was 

 held in the Y. M. C. A. lecture room on the evening- of July nth, 

 when the Rev. Robert Campbell, D.D., lectured on "The Ferns 

 of Canada." The lecture was illustrated by lantern slides showing 

 the various kinds of fern structure and fructification and with the 

 exception of a few western spet ies, the large series of slides shown 

 included nearly every form found in Canada. In his introductory 

 remarks the lecturer defined the term> used in describing the 

 various parts of a fern and as each picture was thrown on the 

 screen the differences between genera and species of the same 

 genus were pointed out. The slides were all good, but those 

 made from photographs ot mounted specimens were much truer 

 to nature than the reproductions of drawings. In addition to the 

 slides Dr. Campbell exhibited a very complete and finely mounted 

 collection of the ferns of Canada. The lecture was of great 

 interest not only to the botanist but to the many lovers of ferns 

 who, though not botanists, are lovers of Nature. 



REVIEW. 



Matthew, G. F. — Are the Saint John beds Carboniferous? 

 Amer. Geol. Vol. XXVII, No. 6, pp. 383-386, Minneapolis, 

 Minn., U.S.A., June, 1901. 



This brief paper is an attempt to give the evidence upon which 

 the plant-bearing beds of the St. John district rest regarding their 

 reference to the Devonian and Silurian systems as held by Dr. 

 Matthew. Correlations with the "Millstone Grit" of England 

 and the " Mauch Chunk" of Pennsylvania are given for different 

 portions ot New Brunswick. Two distant series exist, says Dr. 

 Matthew, one in which the sandstones occur as "free stones," the 

 other in which the "sandstones are strongly cemented with silica 

 and some calcite, the shales converted into slates, the limestones 

 are more crystalline and the beds usually tilted at high angles." 

 An unconformity exists at the point of division. Dr. Matthew 

 holds with discordance of dip &c. The Mispec. and the Little River 

 terranes, the latter constituting the fern beds in question, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Matthew, lie beneath the unconformity. Dr. Bailey, 

 Dr. Ells, Sir Wm. Dawson, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, and Dr. Selwyn 

 are given as authorities for the view that the stratigraphical 

 sequence is as given by Dr. Matthew. The latter claims that 

 recent discoveries serve to prove that types which are usually 

 referred to this " flora have been gathered from the lower horizotis 

 of the Carboniferous. Dr. Matthew also adds that many genera 

 of plants have a wide vertical range citing a recent genus supposed 

 to be found in the Dretaceous. Dr. Matthew makes the so-called 

 " Millstone Grit " the equivalent of the " Pottsville Conglomerate. 



H. M. A. 



