162 On the Pre-carbomferous Flora oj 



his memoir, nor does he appear to have any knowledge of 

 the plants of this age described by Lesquereux in Rogers' 

 Pennsylvania. These might have added ten or twelve species 

 to his list, some of them probably from the Lower Devonian. It 

 is fm-ther to be observed, that certain specimens found in the 

 Upper Ludlow of England,* appear to prove the presence of 

 Lepidodendron in that formation ; and that in the paper above 

 referred to, I have noticed specimens from the Gaspe limestone 

 which seem to me to indicate the occurrence of PsilopTiyton 

 and Noeggerathia or Cordaites in the Upper Silurian of Canada. 



It thus appears that, according to our present knowledge, the 

 plant life of the land, so rich in the coal formation, dies away 

 rapidly in the Devonian, and only a few fragments attest its ex- 

 istence in the Upper Silurian. Great interest thus attaches to 

 these oldest remains of land plants ; and fragmentary though they 

 are and often obscure, they merit careful attention on the part 

 of the geologist and botanist. 



No locality hitherto explored, appears more favourable to the 

 study of this ancient vegetation, than those parts of Eastern 

 America to which this paper relates. The Gaspe sandstones have 

 already afforded six Devonian species, some of them of great 

 interest, and in a remarkably perfect state of preservation ; and 

 from beds of similar age in New Brunswick and Maine, I am 

 now prepared to describe at least ten species, most of them 

 new. This already raises the species found in the band of Devo- 

 nian rocks, extending through the north-eastern States of the 

 Union, and the eastern part of British America, to one-third of 

 the number found in all other parts of the world ; and the char- 

 acter of the containing rocks, the number of nondescript frag- 

 ments, and the small amount of exploration hitherto made, justify 

 the hope that a much larger number may yet be discovered. 



Of the plants described in this paper, only a few have been dis- 

 covered by myself. The greater part are from the following 

 sources. (1) The collection of Mr. G. F. Matthew, of St. John, 

 Kew Brunswick ; (2) a collection from Perry, Maine, made by 

 Mr. Richardson for the Geological Survey of Canada ; (3) speci* 

 mens from Perry in the collection of the Natural History Society 

 of Portland. Several of these plants have been long known. Some 

 of those found at St. John are noticed by Dr. Gesner in his re- 



* Murchison's Siluria, p. 152, Journal Geol. Socy. Vol IT, 



