Section IV., 1894. [ lOl ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. 



VII. — Oil flir Ori/Kuic Remains of the. Little River Oronp, No. III. 

 By G. F. Matthew, D.Se. 



(Read May 25, 1804.) 



1. Note on the plant remains. 



Being impressed witli the weight of the evidence, both of a stratigraphieal and litholog- 

 ieal kind favouring the view of a greater antiquity for the Little River Group, than had 

 been assigned to it on the evidence of the plant remains, the writer was induced to make 

 an examination of the genera and species of the plants as described by Sir J. W. Dawson, to 

 see how far the age of the rocks in which they were contained, could be determined from 

 a point of view independent of the stratigraphy, namely from a review of the genera of the 

 plants. 



No one who reads Sir William Dawson's writings on the Flora of the Devonian Age 

 can help being impressed with the admirable manner in which he has worked out the im- 

 portant features of this ancient flora. His studies of the plants of the " Fern Ledges " 

 remains to-day, after the lapse of over thirty years, the most complete exposition of the oldest 

 land flora known, that can in any way be compared, for variety and the delicacy of the 

 objects described, with that of the Coal-measures. 



And the perfection and completeness of this work is not alone due to the talent and acumen 

 of the above author, but in no small degree results from the diligent search and painstaking 

 accuracy of the late Prof. C. F. Hartt, who diligently culled every available specimen from 

 the rich plant beds of the "Fern Ledges " in Lancaster, and carefully noted the exact place 

 in the series of beds at that place from which the fossils came. 



These plant remains were purchased from Prof. Hartt by the Natural History Society of 

 New Brunswick, which placed them in Sir William's hands for study and description. This 

 was a wise decision of the council of that body as Sir William was then in the midst of his 

 studies of the Flora of the Coal-measures in the Maritime Provinces, and thus prepared to 

 examine and characterise the related species of the Little River Group, in a way that no 

 other Canadian could have done. 



Sir William Dawson's earlier papers on this flora were published by the Geological 

 Society of London, 1861 to 1871, and in the latter year he presented a report on the Devon- 

 ian and Upper Silurian floras of Canada which was published by the Geological Survev of 

 Canada, and which contained descriptions of these plants, with many excellent plates of the 

 fossils. 



Some articles on this subject are also to be found in the early numbers of the Canadian 

 Naturalist and Geologist, in which are descriptions of the first species of plants found in 

 these beds. 



