Section IV., 1910. [3] Trans. R. S.C. 
I.—Review of the Flora of the Little River Group, No. III. 
By G. F. Marruew, D.Sc., LL.D. 
(Analysis of the Flora of the Little River Group, with 
Description of Pseudobaiera.) 
(Read 27th September, 1910.) 
To form a clear conception of the nature of the flora of the Little 
River Group, so interesting on account of its geological antiquity and 
the wide range of forms it contains, it becomes necessary to separate it 
from the association in which Sir William Dawson placed it, and con- 
trast it with the rest of the plants which he described as Devonian. 
And this treatment of his species is the more necessary since 
several leading phytobiologists have asserted that these plants belong 
to the Carboniferous System, a view of their age which is not surprising 
when one notices the remarkably close resemblance of some of the 
species (one may even say many of them) bear to well-known Carboni- 
ferous types. 
The Devonian species (including the Little River forms) are 
summarized by Sir William in the table given at page 85 of the Pre- 
Carboniferous Plants of North Eastern America,’ wherein he shows 
(beside a few of Upper Silurian age) the plants that severally belong to 
the lower, middle and upper divisions of the Devonian System. In this 
table the Little River species are shown in the middle Devonian column. 
After eliminating the Little River plants, the true Devonian types 
stand out with sufficient distinctness, and certain genera become pro- 
minent as Devonian: among these are Psilophyton, Lepidodendron and 
Archeopteris. 
Beginning with the second column of Sir William’s list one may say 
that except the Psilophyta and one or two other genera the lower 
Devonian has but a scanty flora and it is only in the middle and upper 
Devonian that we find a more liberal grouping of species that may be 
regarded as characteristically Devonian. 
Following Sir William’s plan of beginning his list with the higher 
types of vegetation (and passing over the genera based on internal 
structure) one finds species of plants grouped under Sigillaria and 
Stigmaria, that by their small and obscure markings, recall these genera 
only in a general way, and are not by any means characterized by the 


1 The Fossil Plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian Formations of Canada. 
Report, Geol. Survey Canada, 1871. 
