[MATTHEW] A REVIEW OF THE LITTLE RIVER GROUP 117 



LEPIDOCALAiMiUS, n. gen. 



In his Acadian Geology Sir ^Xm. Dawson figured and described 

 a peculiar plant from the Devonian rocks at St. John which he referred 

 doubtfully to the genus Calamités and which, in his later work on 

 the Fossil Plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian formations of 

 Canada, he included in the species described under Asterophyllites. 

 Doubtless he saw the radical differences between this plant and the true 

 Calamités in the structure of the stem and the nature of the leaves. 

 But the ol^jections to classing it with Asteroph3dlites of Brongniart are 

 almost equally strong as those which separate it from Calamités, while 

 from Annularia of the same author (into which many of the species 

 of Asterophyllites described by Sir "William will fall) there are equally 

 notable departures. It appears to the author that these objections are 

 best satisfied by the use of a separate generic name as above. 



Stems solid, hut not of dense substance. Simple, round, reed-like 

 with enlarged and denser nodes at intervals. Several weak bundles of 

 vascular tissue, irregularly disposed. 



The leaves are in tvhorls and are of two lands, one {which may he 

 bracts) oval and bluntly pointed; the other broad ovate, convex and 

 attached to the enlarged nodes; these are supposed to he of the nature 

 of fruit scales or pods; the narroiver oval leaves are often wanting on 

 old parts of the stems and may have been deciduous, the former are 

 more persistent. The root ivas elongated, succulent. 



This genus differs from Asterophyllites, Brongt. in having no leafy 

 branches and in having a prominent enlargement of the node. From 

 Annularia, Brgt. it differs in its short curved leaves and in having no 

 strong middle nerve to the leaf. From Calamocladus, Schemp. it differs 

 in the absence of branches to the main stem, also the leaves of the 

 verticles are few, and not straight nor linear. It may be compared 

 with Palseostachya, Weiss, if it be regarded as an extended spike having 

 several leafing whorls alternating with one fruiting whorl. 



Lepidocalamus scutiger, Dawson. Plate IV, Figs. 1 to 9. 



Dawson, Asterophyllites ( ?) scutigera, Dn. Acad. Geol. p. 539, Fig. 187 C. 

 Dawson, Asterophyllites .scutigera. Fobs, plants, Dev. »& U. Sil. Can. p. 29, 

 pi. V. fig. 58, 59. 



Dawson's original description of the species is as follows : — Stem 

 simple elongated, attaining a diameter of half an inch, obscurely stri- 

 ated; bearing on the nodes whorls of round or oval scales, or flattened 

 nutlets, which at the end of the stem, are crowded into a sort of spiJce, 

 while on other parts of the stem^ the nodes are sometimes an inch apart. 



