[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Erian fruits, &c., some gymnospermous, and probably of _Cordaites_ and Taxine trees (St. John, New Brunswick), A, _Cardiocarpum cornutum_. B, _Cardiocarpum acutum_. C, _Cardiocarpum Crampii_. D, _Cardiocarpum Baileyi_. E, _Trigonocarpum racemosum_. E^1, E^2, Fruits enlarged, F, _Antholithes Devonicus_. G, Annularia acuminata, H, _Asterophyllites acicularis_. H^2, Fruit of the same, K, _Cardiocarpum_ (? young of _A._), L, _Pinnularia dispalans_ (probably a root).] Lastly, a single specimen, collected by Prof. James Hall, of Albany, at Eighteen-mile Creek, Lake Erie, has the structure of an ordinary angiospermous exogen, and has been described by me as _Syringoxylon mirabile_.[BD] This unique example is sufficient to establish the fact of the existence of such plants at this early date, unless some accident may have carried a specimen from a later formation to be mixed with Erian fossils. It is to be observed, however, that the non-occurrence of any similar wood in all the formations between the Upper Erian and the Middle Cretaceous suggests very grave doubt as to the authenticity of the specimen. I record the fact, waiting further discoveries to confirm it. Of the character of the specimen which I have described I entertain no doubt. [BD] "Journal of the Geological Society," vol. xviii. We shall be better able to realise the significance and relations of this ancient flora when we have studied that of the succeeding Carboniferous. We may merely remark here on the fact that, in these forests of the Devonian and in the marshes on their margins, we find a wonderful expansion of the now modest groups of Rhizocarps and Lycopods, and that the flora as a whole belongs to the highest group of Cryptogams and the lowest of Phænogams, so that it has about it a remarkable aspect of mediocrity. Further, while there is evidence of some variety of station, there is also evidence of much equality of climate, and of a condition of things more resembling that of the insular climates of the temperate portions of the southern hemisphere than that of North America or Europe at present.