732 Reviews. [Oct., 
Tur Fiora oF THE CarBoniFeRous Epocn or Nova Scortia.* 
Tus author states that he is more and more convinced that no satis- 
factory progress can be made in fossil botany without studying the 
plants as they occur in the beds in which they are found, or in large 
numbers of specimens collected from these beds, so as to ascertain the 
relation of their parts to each other. A catalogue is given of the 
plants, with descriptions of some new species. The author comes to 
the following conclusions :— 
1. Of 192 nominal species in the list, probably 44 may be rejected 
as founded merely on parts of plants, leaving about 148 true species. 
2. Of these, on comparison with the list of Unger, Morris, and 
Lesquereux, 92 seem to be common to Nova Scotia and to Europe, 
and 59 to Nova Scotia and the United States. Most of these last are 
common to Europe and the United States. There are 50 species 
peculiar, in so far as known, to Nova Scotia, though there can be little 
doubt that several of these will be found elsewhere. It would thus 
appear that the coal flora of Nova Scotia is more closely allied to that 
of Europe than to that of the United States. A curious circumstance 
as connected with a similar relationship of the marine fauna of the 
period. 
3. The greater part of the species have their head-quarters in the 
middle coal formation ; and scarcely any species appear in the upper 
coal formation that are not also found in the former. The lower coal 
formation, on the other hand, seems to have a few peculiar species not 
found at higher levels. 
4. The characteristic species of the lower coal formation are 
Lepidodendron corrugatum and Cyclopteris Acadica, both of which seem 
to be widely distributed at or near this horizon in Eastern America, 
while neither has yet been recognized in the true or middle coal 
measures. In the upper coal formation Calamites Suckowu, Annilaria 
galioides, Sphenophyllum emarginatiim, Cordaites simplex, Alethopteris 
nervosa, A. muricata, Pecopteris arborescens, P. abbreviata, P. rigida, 
Neuropteris cordata, Dadoxylon materiarum, Lepidophlois parvus, Sigil- 
laria scutellata are characteristic plants, though not confined to this 
group. 
5. In the middle coal formation, and in the central part of it, near 
the greater coal seams, occur the large majority of the species of 
Sigillaria, Calamiies, Lepidodendron, and Ferns, some of the species 
ranging from the millstone-grit into the upper coal formation, while 
others seem to be more narrowly limited. 
* By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., Principal of McGill College, Montreal. 
