[MATTHEW] FLORA OF THE LITTLE RIVER GROUP NO. II 91 



In Sternberg's diagnosis of Haliserites he describes the features of 

 a seaweed ; the frond is flat and membranaceous, and ribbed with a cen- 

 tral thickened band; the sporanges are capsular and buried in the sub- 

 stance of the frond and clustered at the mid-rib. 



It is not compatible with the description of the genus to refer to it 

 the plant remains found in the slates of Nassau ; some have one rib, but 

 the broad examples have several ribs; the branches and twigs are 

 dichomously divided and the tips are sometimes circinate, a character 

 not found in the Algœ where Goppert placed his species; nor does he 

 show any fruit or fruit vessels arranged near the mid-rib. A re-exami- 

 nation of this species will probably show that it is a Psilophyton, as 

 several writers have suggested. 



The interesting Psilophyton genus, so well set forth by Sir \Yilliam 

 Dawson, has its representation in the flora of the Little Elver group in 

 a peculiar form (see Plate V), differing from the typical species of the 

 Gaspé localities ; it is described by the above cited author as follows : — ^ 



Psilophyton elegans Dn. Plate V. 



" Stems slender produced in tufts from thin rhizomes, bifurcating 

 and curving at their summits. Surface smooth with very delicate 

 wrinMes. Fructification, in groups of small, broadly ovate scales, borne 

 on the main stem beloiv the points of bifurcation. 



" The original specimens on which this species was established were 

 from St;, Jolin, and were distinguished by their tufted habit of growth, 

 their smoothness, their small size, and the fructification being apparently 

 lateral and sessile; though this character could not be certainly ascer- 

 tained." 



My studies of this plant lead me to think that the object which Sir 

 William has described as the fructification of this plant are only acci- 

 dentally connected with it and that the real fruiting portion is of a 

 different nature. On layers of the shale where this species occurs 3- 

 branched twigs are seen scattered over the surface ; attached to which are 

 rarely found elongated lenticular objects that appear to be fruit- vessels, 

 these, though more slender, may be compared to the detached termina- 

 tions of the fruiting stems of Psilophytom princeps; the relation will be 

 most readily observed by comparing Sir Wm. Dawson's figures with each 

 other, and with the more slender peduncles and fruit that characterize 

 the St. John species, figures 103 and 119 of the Memoir on the Fossil 

 Plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian Formations of Canada. 



iJour. Geol. Soc, Lond., XVIIT, p. 315. Foss. Plnnts Dev. and Si!. Can., 

 p. 40, pi. X, figs. 122, 123. 



