Some Fossil Plants from Eastern Canada . 1 
BY 
RUTH HOLDEN. 
Wilby Prize Student of Radcliffe College. 
With Plates XXII and XXIII. 
T HE geological formations of Eastern Canada, as a whole, have been 
well understood for a long time, owing mainly to the exhaustive 
researches of Sir William Dawson. There are, however, a few localities 
in Prince Edward Island and on the south shore of New Brunswick which 
have occasioned some uncertainty. Considering first New Brunswick, 
Dawson 2 has referred the greater part of the north coast of the Bay of 
Fundy to the Devonian. The only exceptions are one outcrop of Carboni- 
ferous age beginning about ten miles east of St. John, and three of Triassic, 
situated at Quaco, Salisbury Cove, and Gardiner’s Creek. More recently, 
Mr. Ells 3 of the Canadian Government Survey discovered lignitic remains 
from the sandstones of Martin’s Head, identical in anatomical structure 
with lignite from Quaco and the Trias of Prince Edward Island, described 
as Dadoxylon Edvardianum. Accordingly, it seems advisable to add 
Martin’s Head to the list of Triassic localities. 
As regards Prince Edward Island, Dawson 4 in 1868 considered this 
whole island to be Triassic, except for certain localities on the south shore, 
notably at Gallows Point and Des Sables. Here the red sandstones 
characteristic of the rest of the island are replaced by cliffs of a greyish, 
more argillaceous composition, which contain abundant fossil plants. The 
character of these remains, from their similarity to those of the Upper Coal 
Formation of Nova Scotia, led Dawson to the conclusion that these strata 
are, if not Permian, at least Upper Carboniferous. In 1871 5 these beds, 
together with a similar series on the west coast extending from Cape Wolfe 
towards the north point, are called ‘ Permo-Carboniferous \ Later, 6 this 
1 Contributions from the Phanerogamic Laboratories of Harvard University, No. 60. 
2 Dawson, J. W. : Acadian Geology, 3rd edition, p. 108. 
3 Acadian Geology, 4th edition, Notes and Addenda, p. 99. 
4 Acadian Geology, 3rd edition, pp. 116 ff. 
6 Dawson and Harrington : Report on the Geological Structure and Mineral Resources of 
Prince Edward Island. 
6 Dawson : Journal Geological Society, Aug. 1874. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXVII. No. CVI. April, 1913.] 
