Section IV., 1906. [ 99 ] Trans. R. S C. 



X. — A Bevieiv of the Flora of the Little River Group. 

 By G. F. Matthew, LL.D., D.Sc. 

 (Read May 22nd, 1906.) 



The writer proposes to give in a series of articles to be read before 

 this Society the result of a review o£ the plant remains of the Little 

 Eiver Group, a series of strata in southern New Brunswick that have 

 been referred to the Devonian Age. The examination will include 

 a revision of the types of this flora that were returned to the cabinet 

 of the Natural Histor}' Society of 'New Brunswick by Sir J. William 

 Dawson, types collected by the late Professor C. F. Hartt, in 1862-4, 

 and by the author at that time and since, as well as new material 

 collected by Messrs. W. J. Wilson, G. Stead, Wm. Mcintosh and A. 

 G. Leavitt. This new material it is hoped will give addftional know- 

 ledge of this ancient flora. 



The need of a re-examination of these plants is forced upon us, 

 not, only by the changes in nomenclature that have been accepted since 

 Sir William wrote his classic essays on this subject, but also by the 

 fact that eminent pala?obotanists have questioned the reference to these 

 plants to the Devonian Age, and have asserted that they were Car- 

 boniferous. 



The writer does not propose to take up at present the stratigraphical 

 evidence upon which is based the reference of the terrane which holds 

 these plants to the Devonian age, but only to study the plants them- 

 selves, and as far as possible note the beds from which they have come ; 

 the determination of their extract geological age may be left to a later 

 occasion. 



It was in connection Mnth the labelling and arranging of the types 

 of this collection returned by Sir William to the Natural History 

 Society of New Brunswick, that this revision was found to be neces- 

 sary. In the arrangement made when Sir William undertook the 

 study of these plants, one set of the types is preserved in the Museum 

 of McGill University, and the other in the cabinet of the Natural 

 History Society of New Brunswick; duplicate types of some of the 

 species are also in the author's cabinet. 



Since Sir William's work was performed on these plants new 

 species have been found in these beds, including some novel types of 

 the Calamaria and the Ferns. These will be described and figured in 



Sec. IV., 1906. 7a. 



