280 APPENDIX. 



In addition to ferns, it has small Lepidodendra, of which L. Oaspi- 

 anum is the chief. Calamitem occur, ArchcBocalamites radiatus being 

 the dominant species. This plant, which in Europe appears to reach 

 .up into the Ijower Carboniferous, is so far strictly Brian in north- 

 east America. Sigillarm scarcely appear, but Cordaites is abun- 

 dant, and the earliest known species of Dadoxylon appear, while the 

 Psilophyton, so characteristic of the Lower Erian, still continues, 

 and the- remarkable aquatic plants of the genus PtilopTvyton are 

 locally abundant. 



(3) Lower Erian Sub-Flora : 



This belongs to the Lower Devonian sandstones and shales, and 

 is best seen in that formation at Gaspe and the Bay des Chaleurs. It 

 is equivalent to the Oriskany sandstone, so far as its animal fossils 

 and mineral character are concerned. It is characterised by the ab- 

 sence of true ferns, Calamites and Sigillarix, and by the presence 

 of such forms as Psilophyton, Arthrostigma, Leptophleum, and Ne- 

 matophyton. Lepidodendron Gaspianum and Leptophleum already 

 occur, though not nearly so abundant as Psilophyton. 



The Lower Erian plants have an antique and generalised aspect 

 which would lead us to infer that they are near the beginning of the 

 land-flora, or perhaps in part belong to the close of an earlier flora 

 still in great part unknown • and few indications of land-plants have 

 been found earlier. 



At Campbellton and Scaumenac Bay, on the Bay des Chaleurs, 

 fossil fishes of genera characteristic of the Lower and Upper De- 

 vonian horizons respectively, occur in association with fossil plants 

 of these horizons, and have been described by Mr. Whiteaves.* 



It is interesting to note that, as Fontaine and White have ob- 

 served, certain forms which are Erian in the northeast are found in 

 the Lower members of the Carboniferous in West Virginia, indicat- 

 ing the southward march of species in these periods. 



3. The Silurian Ploea and still Eakliee Indications of 

 Plants. 



In the upper beds of the Silurian, those of the Helderberg series, 

 we still find Psilophyton and Nematophyton ; but below these we 

 know no land-plants in Canada. In the United States, Lesquereux 

 and Claypole have described remains which may indicate the exist- 

 ence of lycopodiaceous and annularian types as far back as the be- 



* " Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada.'' 



