Oct. 19, 1877.] 163 [Lesquereux. 
Land Plants, recently discovered in the Silurian Rocks of the United States. 
By Lro LESQUEREUX. 
(Read before the American Philosophical Society, October 19, 1877.) 
The first remains of land plants known from the lower Silurian, were 
found some years ago by Dr. 8. 8. Scoville in blue, hard, sandy clay, or 
marly shale, of the Cincinnati group, on Longstreet Creek, six miles east 
of Lebanon, Ohio. 
This discovery, an important one for the Natural History of this country, 
was recorded in the Am. Journ. of Sciences and Arts, Jan. 1874, p. 31, and 
the remains, representing two fragments of stems or branches, were briefly 
described at the same time. Their reference to the botanical group of the 
Sigillarie, was then hypothetically admitted, from the likeness of the scars 
of the surface of one of the fragments to species of this genus: S. Brardet, 
S. Menardi, ete. 
Later, Prof. Newberry, to whom the same specimens were communi- 
cated also, gave an acconnt of them with figures in the same Journal, Aug. 
1874, p. 110, considering them, in the conclusion of his remarks, as casts 
of some large /ucotds or marine plants. As the doubt could not be cleared 
up by mere discussion, the subject was dropped, in the hope that the 
discovery of other materials of the same kind might afford more light upon 
the true character of these vegetable remains. 
In the meanwhile, as the specimens of Dr. Scoville had been returned 
to me, I made a new and more attentive study of them, had them carefully 
figured, and the characters given in the original description being recog- 
nized as exact, all the documents, specimens and drawings were, at the 
request of Prof. J. D. Dana, sent to him for examination, and also re- 
ferred by himself to Profs. D. C. Eaton and A. E. Verrill of New Haven. 
These celebrated Naturalists, the more competent judges on the subject, 
recognized the fragments as positively referable to land plants by their 
characters. 
Other specimens still more evidently representative remains of land 
vegetation were soon after communicated from the Silurian of Cincinnati, 
and also from the lower Helderberg Sandstone of Michigan ; and as still 
more of the same kind had been promised, the publication of the descriptions 
was postponed, in order to have, for indisputable evidence, a sufficient 
number of these vegetable fragments, from which also the relative charac- 
ters of this new flora might be discerned. 
Just now a branch of a fern has been obtained from the Silurian Schists 
or Slates of Angers, France, and the fact is reported to the Academy of 
Science of Paris, by Count Saporta, with the remark, that this important 
discovery was forestalled in America, where remains of Silurian Land 
Plants had been found whose description would be greatly desirable at the 
present time. 
