Reviews — Dr. Matthew — Flora of Little River Group. 523 



With regard to the flints themselves, of which illustrations are 

 given in six plates, the evidence of man's work is recognized hy 

 Sir E. Ray Lankester, Dr. Blackmore, Dr. W. Allen Sturge (President 

 of the Society), Dr. F. Corner, Mrs, A. S. Kennard, and others ; while 

 Professor Boyd Dawkins and Mr. S. Hazzledine Warren regard the 

 flakings as the result of natural forces. 



The record of facts and the inferences are very carefully and fairly 

 stated hy Mr. Moir, and his paper is followed hy the Report of 

 a Special Committee of the Society appointed to inquire into the 

 question whether the flints had been chipped by natural or by human 

 agency. The verdict was in favour of human agency. 



III. — Flora of the Little River Group, No. III. By G. F. Matthew, 

 D.Sc, LL.D. Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada (in), vol. iv, sect, iv, p. 3. 



rilHIS paper gives an " Analysis of the flora of the Little River 

 J_ Group, with Description of Pseudobaiera" . In it Dr. Matthew 

 has separated the plants of this formation from those taken from 

 Gaspe and other Devonian localities, to show the special types that 

 characterize the Little River Group. Thus isolated, they are seen to 

 have a facies remarkably like that of the usual groupings of Coal- 

 measure plants, with which they have been confounded by several 

 specialists. But in this case the stratigraphy, Dr. Matthew asserts, 

 shows that they must be much older than the Carboniferous age. 

 He claims that the genera Pseudobaiera, Ramicalamus, Lepidocalamus, 

 and Ginlcgophyton are not known in strata more recent than the Little 

 River Group ; the first and last of these genera are Pteridosperms, 

 while the other two belong to the Equisetacese. Certain filicoid genera 

 are also common in this group — Aneimites, ffleitropteris, Pecopteris, 

 Megapht/ton, etc. P&ilophyton occurs, but not the typical forms 

 described by Dawson from the Devonian of Gaspe, etc. 



A revised list of the species of plants of the Little River Group 

 described by Sir William Dawson is given, together with notes on the 

 several species, and quite a number are claimed to be Pteridosperms 

 on the basis of their resemblance to Carboniferous filicoid genera that 

 have been shown to be seed-bearing. 



The closing part of the article is devoted to a redescription of 

 Pseudobaiera as represented by P. Mclntoshi. Additional material 

 has been obtained which shows more fully both the vegetative and 

 fruiting branches or shoots ; the former are more typically filicoid 

 than those first obtained, and the latter show examples of the mature 

 as well as the young fruit or fruit pods. 



Even with the plants of the Little River Group excised the 

 Devonian flora of Eastern North America shows no less than forty 

 species, mostly described by Sir William Dawson, and furnished by 

 localities extending from Pennsylvania to Gaspe. Psilophi/ton, Lepido- 

 dendron (with small areoles), and Archceopteris are genera which are 

 most markedly characteristic of the Devonian age. 



