594 



GEOLOGY 



The forests were made up chiefly of (1) the catamites (Equisetales) 

 the gigantic ancestors of the horsetails, (2) the lepidodendrons t 

 gigantic ancestors of the club-mosses, and (3) the cordaites. All 

 of these were better developed in the flora of a later period. 



The record of the lower land plants is almost negative, except 

 that, singularly enough, bacteria have been reported. 1 The identi- 

 fication of such simple forms in fossilized woody tissue at so ancient 

 a period is remarkable, though the presence of bacteria is altogether 

 probable in itself, for the record of plant life should have been more 

 perfect than it is, had decay not been promoted by bacteria. 



The general aspect of the fern-like, seed-bearing plants was 

 very like that of existing ferns, but some families were archaic and 



A B 



Fig. 425. A, Platephemera antiqua, Sc., St. Johns, N. B. (After Scudder.) 

 B, Xenoneura aniiquorum, Sc. From St. Johns, N. B. (After Scudder.) 



peculiar. The larger number were herbaceous, but there were 

 arboreous forms not unlike existing tree-ferns in general appear- 

 ance. These plants were already so far advanced in their evo- 

 lution that little is certainly known relative to their ancestral 

 relations. They are generally thought to have been the progenitors 

 of the Bennettitales, and through them of the cycads and of most 

 or all other gymnosperms. In numbers, the fern-like forms appear 

 to have surpassed all others. 



Numerous wings and other fragments of insects have been 

 found, chiefly near St. Johns, New Brunswick. 2 They show that 



1 Renault, Ann. Sci. Notes, Vol. II, 1.S96. See also Seward, Fossil I'hmts, 

 1898, pp. !:;:; 138, 



2 Scudder; a list i given in Hull. No. 71, U.S.Geol.Surv., is-.M. ( v )u.->ti.m 

 has been raised as to the Devonian age of these. 



