,'1 ' ",'"f' Dictated DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WASHINGTON D c, AotII 11 1894. My dear Dp. Hollick;- L«squereux was very sdovenli' In his references, and I have had my trials vntn them but have not ^^. /^ DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. gjjlES S. MERKIAM MUNIEU.*" *T LAW. •1 UK«Ty.T.,NlWY«K. R E P O PI T OF TirE raiTED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY THE TERRITORIES R V. HAYDEN, UNITED STATES GEOLOGIST-IN-CHARGE. LIBRARY NEW YORK BOTANIC AU GARDEN VOLUME VII. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1878. I LIBRARY NEW YORK BOTANICAL. QARDEN LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. Offick of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, Washing fori, D. C, January 1, 1878. Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for your approval and for publication, the Seventh Volume of the Final Reports of the Survey under my charge. The work consists of a Report on the Tertiary Flora of the West, by Prof Leo Lesquereux, of Columbus, Ohio, being Part II of ''Contributions to the Fossil Flora of the Western Territories"— Part I being "The Cre- taceous Flora", by the same distinguished author, whose long-continued studies in palseo-botany have placed the subject upon a firm and enduring basis. Part I formed Vol. VI of this series of Final Reports, and the present Part constitutes Vol. VII. The circumstances which led to the preparation of this work may be briefly reviewed. When the geological investigation of the Lignitic formations of the West had reached a certain point, the conclusions derived from such studies were discussed by certain geologists who dissented from the views then expressed respecting the age of these strata. It consequently became desirable, in order to the solution of the questions invoUed, to elaborate further, and with the greatest care, all available material bearing upon this interesting problem. To this end, I desired Prof Joseph Lcidy, Prof E. D. Cope, Mr. F. B. Meek, and Prof Leo Lesquereux, to present in detail all the evidence they could secure in their respective specialties of Extinct Vertebrata, Extinct Invertebrata, and Fossil Flora, bearing on the disputed age of these formation.s, to decide, if possible, whether the strata in question are Cretaceous or Tertiary. The various reports which these gentlemen have furnished testify with what zeal, ability, and success these instructions have been carried out. UT IV LETTER TO TOE SECUBTAKY. If ohjoction is inaile to the use of the term "Lignitic" Group, I would say that, in this work, it is restricted to a series of coal-bearing strata lying above the Fox Hills Group, or Upper Crelaceous, and these are embraced in ihc divisions Laramie and Fort Union Gronjis. It is well known tliat there are in various parts of the West, especially along the fortieth ])arall('l and southwestward, very thick beds of coal in the various divisions of tlx; Cretaceous, extending down even into the ITpper Jurassic. Had this not been the case, the more general term Lignitic would have been retained l)y this Survey, in preference to any other. As far back as 1859 it was my belief, tbunded on what appeared to be sufficient evidence, (hat the sequence between the well-characterized Creta- ceous strata and those of the LigniticGroup, as defined at that time, was continuous, and that the chasm which was supposed to exist between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary epoch would be found to be bridged over. This belief was not based on strictly palceonfological evidence, for no well-marked Cretaceous fossils were then known to pass up into the Lignitic or brackish beds. But the physical conditions under which the sediments of the upper strata of the Fox Hills Group were deposited indicated a gradual change, from deep, quiet marine seas to shallow waters, which became at length brackish and finally entirely fresh waters, during which time the purely marine inverteljrate fauna perished, a brackish and purely fresh-water fauna taking its place. This condition of the Lignitic Group covered a vast area in 1hc Xorthwest, extending far southward, alonij the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, to Denver, Colorado. As we proceed southward and westward from the Missouri River, the brackish beds increase in thickness until along the fortieth j)arallel they become three thousand feet or more, indicating, so far as can l)c determined, no break in the sequence from the Fox Hills Group to the purely fresh-water strata of the Wahsatch Grouj). Dr. C. A. White, Pateontologist to the Survey under my charge, has made a critical examination of these formations during the past season, and he says tliat his investigations have fully confirmed the views expressed by mc some years ago, and in(ricated i)y the pahcontological sludies of Mr. ]\Ieck, that the Fort Union beds of the Upi)ei; Missouri River are the equivalent of the Lignitic formation as it exists along the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. He also testifies to the equivalency of the latter with the Bitter Creek series west oflhe Rockv i\I()untains. The.- are con- LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. V firmed, not hy tlic discovery merely of one or twodouhtful species common lo tlic strata of cacli of these regions, but by an identical I\Iollnscan fauna ranging through the Avliole series in each of the regions named. Tiiis shows that the strata referred to, all belong to one well-marked period of geological time. Dr. White arrives at these conclusions, not merely because there is a similarity of type in the fossils obtained from the various strata of the Laramie Group willi those tiiat were before in question, but l)y reason of the specific identity of many fossils tliat range from the l)ase of tiie Laramie Group up into and through the strata that were formerly referred to the base of the Wahsatch. Some of these species were found by Dr. AVhite in the Laramie strata on both sides of the Rock}' Mountains, with a vertical range of not less than three th(msand feet and a geographical range of more than a thousand miles. The conclusion, therefore, becomes more and more apparent that while till' [)rincipal groups of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic formations in the West have each peculiar characteristics, and are readily recognized by the geologist, tiiey really form an unbroken series of strata, not separated by sharply defined planes of demarcation, either stratigraphical or palasontological. The facts as we understand them at the present time would seem to warrant this general division, viz.: a marine series. Cretaceous; gradually passing up into a brackish-water series, Laramie; gradually passing up into a jiurely fresh- water series, Wahsatch. It is also probable that the brackish-water beds on the Upper Missouri must be correlated with the Laramie, and that the Wahsatch Group as now defined and the Fort Union Group are identical as a wiiole, or in part at least. The plants which are recorded in this volume began their existence at the base of the Laramie Group, and continued through the entire series, brackisli and fresh-water. The reason will now become apparent why I have, in my former reports, called the Laramie Group a transition series, or beds of passage, not as a distinctive name, but only as indicating the fact that they seemed to bridge over the chasm between the j)urely marine Cfetaceous and the purely fresh-water Tertiary. The lack of animal remains in the Tjower Lignitic ]\[casures, especially those of Colorado, is remarkal)h;. On the other iiaiid, all tlie coal-bearing strata above the Cretaceous Fo.x Hills Group al)ound in well-preserved vege- table remains. The comparatively few specimens of fossil j)lants obtained by the Survey in Colorado up to the yc^ar 1870 pointed to the conclusions VI LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. which arc now reached, but the evidence they represented was deemed inconclusive. Prof. Lesquereux was, therefore, desired to take the field under the direction of the Survey, to study the Fossil Flora of these l)eds at all the more interesting localities, from New Mexico through Colorado into Wyoming and Utah. Some results of his researches, conducted during two seasons, have already been given to the public in the Annual Reports of the Survey, where the many new species discovered were named and briefly characterized. Such description of fossil remains of plants, often represented by mere fragments, was found to be inadequate to the full exposition of the subject which science demands. It became necessary, therefore, to figure these fossil plants with great care, in order that their characters might be fully appreciated, and to compare them closely with those already known from the different geological formations of Europe. By such representation and examination alone, could safe conclusions be drawn respecting their true geological relations. The carefully drawn plates which illustrate the subject, prepared by Prof. Lesquereux himself, or under his immediate supervision, place the characters of these remains in the clearest light. The greater portion of the text of this volume, forming Part Second, is devoted to the determination, description, and discussion of the several species. The First and the Third parts treat mainly of the geological bearing of the fossil plants and animals upon the main question of the age of the Lignitic formations of the West, and represent the conclusions derived from the study of the remains here figured and described in connection with consideration of the evidence afforded by the fossil animals. The author states that his final conclusions do not differ materially from those already advanced by myself, and he regards the evidence as conclusive that the Lignitic Group is of Tertiary age. This result is gratifying, not only as settling the question at issue, but as silencing criticism of the value and reliability of the general work accomplished by the Survey under my direction. Apart from the technical aspects of the scientific problem here solved, the Lignitic formations of the West have an economic importance that cannot easily be overestimated. Their wide extent and the number and thickness of the beds of coal distributed through these strata confer a value not less than that of the true Coal-Measures of tiie East, from the Mississippi to LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. VH Massachusetts. Their inipoituuce and practical value are enhanced by their presence in a country otherwise almost destitute of fuel. These AVestern Coal-Measures render rail communication between opposite sides of the continent not only practicable, but easy; they make possible the settlement of an otherwise scarcely inhabitable country, and are invaluable in the prose- cution of the mining and manufacturing industries of the Rocky Mountain region. The plants which afford this valuable combustible material merit close study, no less from an economic than from a purely scientific point of view. Other scientific deductions than those already presented are derived from such investigations. To the study of the plants of the older Coal- Measures we owe not only our knowledge of the vegetation of the several geological epochs, but also our recognition of the diverse climatic conditions which marked successive periods during the slow formation of the continent. Until recently, the physical influences prevailing during the progressive modification of the earth's surface from the earliest periods to the present time have been considered in this connection only by the European palaeo- botanists. Europe has seen the appearance of many works upon the fossil plants of all her formations; but these records, however rich and interesting, are incomplete without comparison with those of other continents. Deduc- tions respecting the possible uniformity of the climatic conditions of any one period over the whole hemisphere, or regarding the origin and distribu- tion of plants, and the actual character of vegetable life, remain unreliable and wholly unsatisfactory so long as they rest merely upon local observations. The scientists of Europe, fully aware of this, have regarded the study of the fossil botany of America as of the utmost importance, and have received with evident satisfaction the first contributions to the knowledge of the subject from investigations conducted in North America. A number of memoirs have already appeared upon the Fossil Flora of the true Carbonife- rous or Coal-Measures of the United States. The publication of Professor Lesquereux's Cretaceous Flora of tlie Dakota Group, forming Vol. VI of this series of Reports, awakened great interest in the whole subject, and incited fruitful discussions respecting the European formations of the same epoch. The present volume, on the Tertiary Flora, opens a page of no less interest and one still more important — one on which are traced the characters of a VUI LETTEK TO THE SECRETARY. geologic record whicli too long remained blank, while llie spirit of scientific incjuiry was moving in other lines of research with such ellbctive energy. The lively and widespread interest manifested by the people of the United States in the progress of science would ensure the favorable reception of a work upon a hitherto unknown subject, even though it did not relate, as this one does, to one of the most practically valuable as well as scientifically remarkable geological formations of the continent. The study of palseo-botany acquires its highest interest when considered in connection witli the plant-life of the present time. Fossil plants are records of the past, engraven on the rocks — the legible documents which enable the student to discern whence and how the Flora of to-day has acquired its character. The study of recent vegetation is linked with that of the long past as indissolubly as are the plants themselves related by descent with modification from preexisting forms; and its rational interpre- tation is possible only when the subject is viewed in the reflected light of geological succession. But the study of Fossil Floras may be brought to bear upon questions of still greater magnitude and importance, even those of the origination of continental land-areas as at present existing, and of their connection or sepa- ration at certain periods of geologic time. To recognize, for example, that the present American Flora includes types traceable back to the oldest geologic formations, and that the continent has preserved certain peculiar types, not found in Europe or elsewhere, through all the mutations of its surface-features, would autliorize the deduction that these land-areas were separated for a corresponding length of time. Such studies, again, bear upon the problem, whether, as some believe, the North American Flora was derived hy migration across intermediate land, either from Europe or Asia, or whether, as others maintain, the Flora was indigenous and consequently peculiar. Such considerations bring us face to face with one of the greatest and gravest problems that the human intellect may aspire to solve, namely, the origin and development of sj)ecies. The value which attaches to the study of Fossil Floras as furnishing data for general geological purposes has been often (lis[)uted. It is well under- stood that palccontological or palajo-botanical material is more or less valuable and reliable in proportion to the abundance and state of preservation of LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. ix specimeDs. In general terms, it may be said, that, in llie determination of marine formations, the remains of fossil plants have little valne in comparison with those afforded by fossil animals. But the conclusion of this volume, it is hoped, slious that tlic study of fossil plants gives no less reliable data than those afforded by animal remains ia the investigation of land formations. During the whole course of his researches npon tlie Mesozoic and Cenozoic Floras of the "West, the author has been in constant communication with Ileer, Schimper, Saporta, and other eminent paIa3o-botauists of Europe, who have commented npon the progress of his labors in the most flivorable terms, and have unequivocably confirmed his conclusions. AVhatever differ- ence of opinion may continue respecting the age of the formation from which the plants treated in this volume have been derived, the memoir will ever remain an eloquent witness to tlie learning and ability of its illustrious author, and a monument to the science he has for years cultivated with the most gratifying success. If he may not be said to have created palaeo-botany in America, he has been foremost in fostering it, and has brought it to the point of advancement that is matched only by the standard of excellence that the most eminent of his European compeers have attained. - F. V. HAYDEN, United Slates Geologist. Hon. Gael Scuuez, Secretary of the Inlcrior, Wasliington, V. C. T F — H UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FOSSIL FLORA WESTEEN TEERITOIIIES. P^RT II, r.LW Yo; K BOTANICAL THE TERTIARY FLORA. By LEO LESQUEREUX. WASHINGTON: OOVEENMENT FEINTING OFFICE. 1878. XI TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I. Pagt. The LiGNiTic Foumations ok Noktii Amkhica: ^ 1. Areal Distiibutiou I ^ 2. Stratigraphy of the Ligiiitic ami its Capacity for Combustiblt^ MiniTal In § 3. The Agi! of the Lignitic. indicated by its Geological Distribution and its Fauna '^I PART II. Description ok the Tertiary Fossil Plants ;i:{ CRYPTOGAMS. Fiingi '.V.'i Lichenes : 'M> Algae :iT Characeie 43 Mnaci 43 Lycopodiaceae 44 Filices 49 EhizocarpiiB (i4 CALAMARI^. Equi8et'' ACERINEiE. AceracejB 260 Sapiuilacea) 263 FltANGULACEiE. Staphylaccaj 267 Celastro;i3 268 Ilicraj 269 Rbanine® 272 TEREBINTHINE^. JuglandesB 283 Aiiacarcliaccie 291 Zanthoxjleaj 294 CAMCIFLORJi:. Halorajjere 295 MYUTIFLOK^. Myrtaceio 296 ROSIFLOK^. Pomaceaj 297 Legum inosa: 298 . Incerta; sedis 301 PART III. AOE or THF- LiGNITIC FORMATIONS DETKRMINED BY THE CHARACTERS OF THE FOSSIL PlaXTS 309 Table or Distribution of Speciks 314 Table of Distribution of the Species of Point op Kocks 343 LIST OF ERRATA. Id indicating the uumbcr of liiic8, 1 do not count the. heading of the p.nges. Page 25, line 7 from top, read "Oslrea " foi- " Onlivo ". I'age 41, line 5 from l)ottom, read " air) " for " '2A4 ". Page 42, line 7 from top, read " 373 " for " 273 ". I'age 47, line 12 from top, erase " stem ", which is re])eated. Page 47, line 10 from hottom, read " laciiiia;" for ''^locinwi ". Page 53, line 9 from bottom, add " Ung. in" before " Ueer". Page 07, line 13 from bottom, read '• cellular " for " medullar " Page 74, line 15 from bottom, read " fig. 2 " for " fig. 6 ". Page 86, line B from top, read "103" for " 113". P:tge 93, line 16 from top, add " c" after " tig. 45 ". Page 115, Hue 13 from bottom, read " Plate IX" for " IV ". Page lie, Hue 14 from bottom, read •' Plate XXXVIII " for "XVIIl ". Page 124, line 15 from bottom, read " brachidodrome " for" brachiodroiiic ". Page 133, line 17 from bottom, the quotation "Lci^qx.", etc., goes above, afier "p. 545. Mijrka Liidiviyii". Page 134, line 9 from bottom, read " 412" for " 413 ". Page 139, line 16 from top, read " 29 " for " 30 ". Page 151, line 14 from top, read " 378 " for " 373 ". Page 167, line 3 from top, add " PI. XIX " after " p. 25". Page 171, line 15 from bottom, insert a comma in place of " that". Page 178, line 12 from bottom, read " fig. 14 " for " 15 a ". Page 183, line 17 from top, read " Oeynhausiana " for "(Eninghauaiaiia ". Pago 184, line 19 from top, read " Oe!j:ih(^usiana" for " CEiiinghausiaiia". P.ige 203, line 17 from bottom, add " II " after " Palx-out ". Page 216, line 13 from top, read " Plate XXXVI" for " XXVI ". Page 216, line 3 from bottom, read " camptodronie " for " brachiodrome ". Page 219, line 7 from bottom, read " 1873 " for " 1874 ". Page 220, line 8 from bottom, read "85 " for " 35 ". Page 220, Une 7 from bottom, read " 29 " for " 294 ". Page 234, line 19 from bottom, read " shallow " for " hollow ". Page 277, line 4 from top, add " from" after " dentate ". Page 284, line 4 from top, read " whose " for " its ". Page 286, line 9 from top, erase " Supi)lernent, p. 8 ". Page 298, lino 9 from bottom, read " PI. LXIII, fig. 8 " for " fig. 5 ". Page 318, line 4 from toji, read " JErioiaulon " for " Jir'wcolon ", LETTER TO THE GEOLOGIST-INCH ARGE. Columbus, Ohio, June 18, 1877. Dear Sir : I seixl you herewith my report on tl^e Tertiary Flora of the Territories. The work has three essential divisions. In tiie first, the general outlines of the geology of the countries where- from the specimens of i)lants have been obtained are briefly exposed. This part is rather yours tlian my own. It could not be omitted, however, in this volume; for it is advisable, for the understanding of the characters of the floras, to have for reference an expose of the geographical and stratigraphical distribution of the groups from which the specimens are derived. The quota- tions on the subject arc carefully credited to the original authors. The second part is the description of the species of fossil plants. The third reviews the evidence aflbrded by the fossil flora to the age and the relation of the different groups of the Lignitic formations. The conclu- sions derived from this review may not be generally admitted; they are, however, confirmed by the careful comparison of the characters of the vegetable remains. This part is prefaced by a few remarks upon the progress of the work from the beginning of my connection with your Survey. I have there mentioned the names of all those who have contributed to the Flora by researches and communications of specimens. This mention is rightly due to all, but especially to some friends who have worked hard and given much time, without any remuneration, to procuring materials often of great value to American jjalEeontology. You will certainly find that they are all entitled to a copy of the Flora, as they are also here to the expression of my most sincere thanks. This Flora of the North American Lignitic is like a supplement to that of the Cretaceous Dakota Group. Both together constitute a historical record not less interesting to Botany than to Geology ; for, beside the evi- 1 T F ^ 2 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. tlcnce afforded on tlie relation of the groups of the formations, they expose, as in a written book, documents illustrative of the origin and the successive development of some of the predominant and more interesting types of the present vegetation of this country. Allow me here to give expression of my gratitude for the assistance which you have given to my work and the constant interest by which you have greatly encouraged it. Very truly and respectfully, yours, L. LESQUEREUX. Dr. F. V. Hayden, United States Geologist, Washington, D. C. PART I. INTRODUCTION^ THE LIGNITIC FORMATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA. ^ 1. — Areal distribution. The country west of the Missouri, and to the base of the Rocky Mountains, is for nearly six hundrci miles— as from Omaha to Cheyenne, or from Kansas City to Denver— a vast plain, with a gradual slope, unappre- ciahle to the eyes, and without any of those land irregularities which gen- erally, breaking the stratification by upheavals or denudations, expose to view the rocks composing the crust of the land surface. The ascending grade from the Missouri River toward tlie mountains does not average more than ten feet per mile, and as the Cretaceous strata exposed below Omaha above the Permian Measures, are nearly horizontal, they pass, of course, toward the west under the different stages of the Tertiary or under more recent deposits. The great uniformity of the plains and the absence of exposed rocks prevent the distinct tracing of the line of demarkation between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary. As far as it is known in the States of Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, the average width of the belt occupied by the Dakola group, which is in that country the lowest member of this formation, is from sixty to one hundred miles.* Over this appear the Upper Cretaceous groups, wiiich, where they have been observed along the Missouri River, have a thickness of more than two thousand feet, or, for the whole Cretaceous forma- tion, two thousand five hundred feet. As from O malyi to Cheyenne , which » Eeport of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, by Dr. F. V. Haydeu, vol. vi, Cretaceous Flora, p. 12. 3 4 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. is five thousand feet liiglicr, the distance is five liundred miles, admitting horizontality of the measures and uniformity of the grade, tlie belt of the Cretaceous should occupy about half the width of the i^lain between the Missouri River and the base of the mountains. This estimate is, however, too high; for, along the Missouri River, Dr. Ilayden fixes the eastern limits of the Cretaceous, or the appearance of the Tertiary over them, at Fort Benton;* and considering tlie Lignitic area as marked in his geological map of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.f that of the Cretaceous would, from east to west, be about one-third the width of that of the Tertiary. The first record we have of the area of the Lignitic, or at least of its wide extent along the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers, is obtained from the narration of the voyage of Lewis and Clarke in 1804. The following passage is copied from R. C. Taylor's Statistics of Coal, p. 174 : — "The coal, or lignitic, was first observed twenty miles above the Mandan village. The bluffs on each side of the river are upward of one hundred feet high, composed of sand and clay, with many horizontal strata of carbonated wood, resembling pit-coal, from one to five feet each in thick- ness, and occurring at various elevations above the river. At fifty miles above the village, similar coal seams were noted; bnt here they were observed to be on fire, emitting a quantity of smoke and a strong sulphurous smell. Further on, the same sulphurous coal continued for eighty miles more ; strata of coal, frequently in a state of combustion, appearing in all the exposed faces of the bluffs. The quality of the coal improved as the party advanced, near the mouth of the White River, eighty-five miles farther, aflTording a hot and lasting fire, but emitting very little smoke or flame. Thence forty-seven miles, to the Yellowstone River, and at a bluff eight miles up that stream, were several strata of coal. For fifty miles above the junction of the Yel- lowstone and the Missouri, there were greater appearances of coal than had yet been seen, the seams being in some places six feet thick; and there were also strata of burnt earth, which were always on the same level with those of coal. The explorers had thus far traced this lignite formation along the banks of the Missouri for a distance of three hundred and thirty miles. The horizontal formation of clay, loam, and sand, with fragments of coal in the drift of the river, extended three hundred miles more, to Muscleshell River, • Dr. F. V. H.iyden, Annual Ucport, 18G9, p. 48. t United Stales War Department Map of thu YellowHtone and Misbouri Eivers, e.xplored by Capt. W. ¥. Raynolda and Lienl. 11. l',, Miiynadier, 1850-60. AREAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE LIGNITIC FORMATIONS. 5 or six huiidred and twenty miles from Mandau Village. Even above this point, wasiiod coal continually appeared ou the shores of the river, and at Elk llajjids, eight hundred miles iVom Fort Mandan, the liigh horderiug lilufTs were still composed of horizontal beds of clay, brown and white sand, soft, yellowish-white sandstone, hard, dark-brown freestone, and large, round, or kidney-shaped nodules of clay iron ore. Coal, or carbonated wood, similar to tiiat previously observed, was also seen, and was accompanied with burnt earth, prol)ably the result of the si)ontaneous combustion of the coal, as was noticed for hundreds of miles below. After reaching the Grand Fork of the Missouri, and ascending two or three days' journey up Maria's River north- ward, it was remarked that j)rccisely the same geological character and coal strata prevailed for more than sixty miles. So far, therefore, the exj)loring party had been traveling through or over a ligneous deposit of singularly uniform character for no less than nine hundred and eighty miles, following the windings of the river. Pursuing the South Fork toward the Great Falls of the Missouri, coal was still observed in Idulfs of dark and yellow clay at a distance of two thousand four hundred and fifty-four miles up that mighty river, and it was not until near the base of the Rocky Mountains, and after one thousand miles of traveling across it, that this great region of coal-beds and lignites was passed." "On the return, Captain Clarke descended the Yellowstone from about north latitude 45*^ to its mouth, 48° 20', and everywhere found the same series of coal and variously colored clays and soft sandstones as was traversed in ascending the Mis.souri. Below the Big Horn is a large stream falling in from the south, whose Indian name implies the Coal Creek, from the great quantity of this mineral upon its border. The same coal series continued to the confluence of the Missouri, exhibiting uninterruptedly for seven hundred miles, in addition to the thousand previously traversed, the vast persistence of this formation. The enormous area of similar strata is further shown by the decoloration of all the tributaries that enter the Missouri from both the south and the north, from the forty-second to the forty-ninth degree of north latitude." It is from the records of those celebrated explorers especially, also from those of Audubon and Harris, Sublette, Frdmont, Emory, etc., for the United States, from the explorations in British America by Dr. Richardson, Drum- mond, and Captain Franklin, that Taylor obtained the data for the delineation 6 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. of the area of the Lignitic in the map of his Statistics of Coal, 1848.* As an introduction to it, he remarks (p. 23) on that enormous range of brown coal, apparently of the Tertiary period, which follows the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains, from near Mexico even to the Polar Sea: — " Nature", he says, "has indeed worked on a truly gigantic scale. We see here a deposit of brown coal so extensive that the magnitude of its proportions is far from being defined ; yet enough is known to show that it exceeds in longitudinal range and breadth all others of the present surface of our planet. So far seems to be established, that, allowing li])erally for interruptions in continuity, supposing that any such exist, it occupies thirty-five degrees of latitude, or near two thousand five hundred miles, following the oblique range, and has a maximum breadth on north latitude 48° of four hundred miles; the whole area, as near as we can venture to compute, being two hundred and fifty thou- sand square miles, or one hundred and sixty millions of acres, more than twice the size of Great Britain. Compared with this, the largest coal-fields in the world are absolutely small." Audubon and Harris ascended the Missouri to the mouth of the Yel- lowstone River. In the account of their voyage, they give, on thd Tertiary strata of the country, details in accordance with those recorded by Lewis and Clarke.f The whole series of strata, for many hundred miles prior to reach- ing this formation, is described as perfectly horizontal; the upper part of each bed or rock being successively intersected by the angle of descent to the river. The Tertiary group is indicated by the remarkable strata which form the picturesque hills noticed by travelers, and called Mauvaises-Terres by the trappers and voyageurs. Mr. Plarris counted in one place eight seams of coal between the river bank and the top of the bluff, varying from six inches to four feet in thickness. This coal, he observes, is very light, and ignites with difficulty, emitting a very unpleasant odor while burning. Fossilized wood is very abundant, occasionally much flattened by the pressure of overlying strata. Mr. Bell was the only one of the party who had an opportunity of witnessing the burning of the cliffs about thirty miles above the Yellowstone, on the northern bank of the Missouri, and all agree in attributing their burning to the spontaneous combustion of the coal. Mr. Harris states that tlie coal- seams commence in the upper part of Nicollet's great Cretaceous clay bed, * Chart showing the imsition of thu coal-fields ou the surface of the k'"^**; ^y Kichard Taylor. ♦ Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, May, 184.5. AREAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE LIGNITIC FORMATIONS. 7 and further, that there occurs in the same formation a substance like petro- leum in color and consistence, but without odor; that from the specimens brouglit home by the last-named traveler from the vicinity of Fort Union, near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, we derive incon- testable proofs of a fresh-water formation. Among other strata exposed in a cliiFncar the fort are thin beds of clay and argillaceous rock, l)olh conlaining three or four species of fresh-water univalve shells. There is besides a rock twenty or thirty feet thick, which also contains proofs of fresh-water origin in bivalve shells, leaves of deciduous trees, and bones apparently of mam- miferous animals. Details in accordance with those given above are reported from the belt of the Lignitic surveyed north of the limit of the United States and British America. They extend to Vancouver, even to the Arctic land of Disco, Greenland, and southward along the Pacific slope to the southern extremity of the continent. They are, however, still less precise, and evidently Mr. Taylor refers to the Tertiary coal deposits of different geological ages. Hence, we have as yet nothing definite in regard to those mentioned coal strata. Even we may say that scarcely anything positive was known of the great North American Lignitic when Dr. F. V. Hayden undertook the work of exploration and began liis researches, in 1854. It is therefore from the numerous publications of reports and memoirs of the celebrated geologist that I have to take most of the reliable facts exposed in this introduction. I cannot enter into the examination of Dr. Hayden's researches without remarking on the accuracy of the data whicii he has exposed in his numer- ous Reports and Memoirs on the Geology of the Western Territories. Begin- ning in Kansas and Nebraska, he has followed the explorations foot by foot, so to say, not omitting a single fact worth the attention of the geologist. Collecting specimens of ore, of minerals, of animals, of plants, he has by and by traced the outlines of the present and ancient history of" these Western Territories ; and calling to his assistance all the specialists who might ren- der his work more complete, he has fdled the pages of a truly invaluable record. For now, the natural history of those western regions, mostly unknown a few years ago, is exposed as distinctly and precisely as may be that of any of the oldest States of the Union. The agricultural and mineral resources, the geographical and stratigraj)hical distribution, the fauna and flora of the present epoch, those of tiic former geological periods, even the phys- 8 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. ical circumstances influencing the character of the countries surveyed, all have been considered and studied by Hayden. His researches show tlie constant vigilance and circumspection of a master attending to the performance of a great work, the building of a monument whose plan has l)een prepared by serious scientific studies. I speak here by experience, for in the part assigned to me I had to follow, so to say, the footsteps of the master, and found that even the matters of the least importance had been already recorded by him, and outside of my specialty, the study of the paleobotany of the Cretaceous and the Lignitic, I could scarcely find anything worth mentioning as new. The first explorations of Dr. Hayden over the western coal regions, to which the name of Great Lignitic is generally and appropriately given, were extended first up the Missouri River from the first appearance of the Tertiary strata near Fort Clarke to the mouth of the Yellowstone, and thence up that river to a point near the mouth of the Big Horn for a distance of about six hundred miles. He considers that the area of the Lignitic formations cannot be, on the Upper Missouri, less than one hundred thousand square miles, without taking into account the belt which extends far north across the boundary of the United States into the British Possessions.* On the geological map of the Yellowstone and the Missouri Rivers, prepared for the explorations of Capt. W. Raynolds and Lieut. H. E. Mayna- dier for 1859-60, the part colored as Tertiary Lignitic by Dr. Hayden, who had charge of the geological researches, indicates a wider area, not less than one hundred and twenty-five thousand square miles, and this only from the boundary of the British Provinces to the Black Hills. Between these and the Rocky Mountains, south to the Nebraska River, the Tertiary belt is still continued over a surface of about sixteen to seventeen thousand square miles. Farther south we have not as yet any map exposing the distribution of the Tertiary. Prof Hayden, considering this part of the area occupied by the Lignitic, says:t — "We may trace it southward in a broad continuous belt across the Yellowstone River, between the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains, until it is overlapped by the White River group about sixty miles north of Fort Laramie. If we continue southward along the base of the Laramie Range, we find that the Lignitic group reappears about ten miles south of the Union Pacific Railroad ; that where the White River group and the Lignitic ' Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 1874, p. 20. t Loc. cit., p. 2G. AREAL DISTRIBUTIONS' OF THE LIGNITIC FORMATIONS. 9 come in contact, the former is superimposed to the latter; and that really the White River group formed a vast basin subsequent to the existence ot the great lake on whicli the Lignitic sediments were deposited." He adds: "We find also, by examining the White River group along the base of the mountains, that the Laramie Range for.ncd a l>arrier that prevented it from extending into the Laramie Plains; but the evidence is clear that at the tune of the existence of the great Lignitie lake or sea, this barrier did not pre- vent the water communication with the Laramie Plains. Lideed, the evi- dence seems quite elear that, with the exception perhaps of some isolated peaks rising above the waters, there was no mountain barrier where we have n<,w the Laramie Range. Therefore, with the exception of the Bear River aud Coalville group, we may connect the coal-bearing beds of the Laramie Plains and Colorado with the vast group in the Northwest." The southern l)asin, generally named tlie Colorado Basin, is followed, nearly without interruption, from a (.^^ miles south of Cheyenne to New Mexico It is continuous to the South Platte below Denver, where it is covered by a ridge of hills, the Monument Creek group, and then reappears near Colorado City. On the Arkansas River, near Canon City, outlayers of the Licuitic have been left upon the Cretaceous, which by denu.lation is exposed over nearly the whole valley; and south of the Arkansas, or from the Spiuish Peak the belt becomes continuous again to the Raton Mountains, m New Mexico, with outlayers or isolated patches appearing as far south as Albuquerque. The southern Lignitic covers, therefore, an extensive area. It cannot be estbnated, however, for the reason that it is cut by more recent deposits at some places, as south of Denver, and by erosions along the Arkansas River, and especially because its width from the mountains to the east is unknown. The upheaval of tlie mountains has exposed the edges of the Tertiary strata with those of the underlying formations, throwing them up into a series ot hogbacks, which pass very abruptly from an inclined, even vertical position, in the proximity of the mountains, to a horizontal direction toward the plains. All along the mountains, the Lignitic is at the upper stage, and therefore it is covered merely in passing to the plains by the more recent deposits of the surface But how far it extends, or it is accessible for coal, has not ye been ascertained. Shafts have been sunk east of Denver about ten miles, and thick beds of coal or lignite have been reached at a moderate depth. Other 10 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. shafts, near Plattevillc, north of Denver, have also reached coal quite near the surface, showing that the belt of the Lignitic extends, locally at least, to a great distance eastward from the base of the mountains. § 2. — Slratigraphi/ of the Lignitic and i/s capacihj for combustible mineral. On this subject we have documents more precise than for the former, though they are not complete as yet ; for the amount, thickness, and chemi- cal value of the coal or Lignitic beds is tar from being exactly known, or even far from being possibly estimated. Where the Lignitic has been recog- nized from its base, it has been seen overlying the Upper Cretaceous strata, whose section is exposed in the Annual Report of Dr. Hayden for 1870, p. 87. The two upper groups, the Fort Pierre group. No. 4, and the Fox Hill bed. No. 5, have generally an abundance of invertebrate fossil remains, and a peculiar lithological composition, which makes them easily recognizable. In the North Basin, or the Fort Union group, the superposition of the Lignitic to the Cretaceous is not marked by any definite line of demarkation. Indeed, this line is seen nowhere, neither in an abrupt change of the compounds, nor in an unconformable stratification, nor in the character of the faunas. On this subject, Dr. Hayden remarks :* — "When we bear in mind the fiict that where the Lignitic has been seen in contact with the last Cretaceous beds, the two have been found to be conformable, however great the upheavals and the dis- tortions may be, while at the junction there seems to be a complete mingling of sediments, one is strongly impressed with the probability that no important member of either system is wanting between them." And at another pagetf — "That the passage from the brackish- to the fresh- water beds of the Tertiary is not marked by any material alterations in the nature of the sediments, nor have we, as far as it is known, any reason for believing that any climatic or other important physical changes, beyond the slow rising of the land and the consequent recession of the salt and brackish water, took place during the deposition of the whole of th(! oldest members of the Tertiary." In his Geological Report on the P^xjdoration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, IS.oO-fiO, Dr. Hayden remarks upon the Lignitic of the Yellowstone River (p. 58) : — " Passing up the valley of the Yellowstone, we see the gray sandstone Tertiary, which we have o])served to cover the Cretaceous nearly to the foot of the blulis. The junction of these formations is quite "Annual Kcpoit, 1874, p. '2-1. t Same Rcpml, p. a'>. STRATIGRArnY OF THE LIGNITIC FORMx\TIONS. H well marked on both sides of the river. For a considerable distance both above and l)elow Fort Sarpy, a l)cd of sandstone forms nearly vertical bluffs on l)otli sides of the river, which 1 iiiid it difficult to locate. Cretaceous Nos. 4 and 5, composed of yellowish-brown indurated clay, with concretions con- taining Baculites ovatiis, Rostellarin, etc, in great abundance, occur, passing into a dark gray coarse-grained sandstone, containing also Baculites ovatus, Aricida, like A. Nebrascensis, and an Ostrea, new species. This also passes into a sandstone having a most ragged front, from atmospheric agencies and the difference in the consistency of the material composing the bed. It is in the main a coarse-grained, friable, ferruginous yellow sandstone, but contain- ing vast numbers of concretions ; some a reddish-yellow arenaceous lime- stone, others sandstone; some nearly compact, with laminai; others divided into thin layers, the harder portions projecting out beyond the friable ones. The harder layers lie in the vertical cut, usually from five to thirty feet long. "The layers are quite irregular in their horizontal fracture, the wliole bed exhibiting indications of having been deposited in moving waters. May it not be the transition bed from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary epoch, the foreshadowing of the Tertiary period?" In reviewing the whole of the Reports of Dr. F. V. Hayden and of his assistants, we find similar descriptions of the same great sandstone forming the base of the Lignitic Measures. My own section of the sandstone overlying the Cretaceous No. 4 on the Purgatory River, near Trinidad, New Mexico, is, as will be seen, like a more detailed repetition of Dr. Hayden's description of the so-called transition sandstone, and also the other sections of the Lignitic productive measures overlying it expose the general distribution of the Lig- nitic beds, as indicated by the numerous sections given in the same Report of Dr. Hayden of the Upper Missouri, or North Lignitic group, thus record- ing the same characters of the measures at both extremes of the North American basin. As an example of the distribution of the Upper Lignitic, I copy the section of the Pumpkin liutte, between the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains, in the southern part of the North or Missouri Lignitic. It is in descending order:* — Feet. 1. Light yellow friable sandstone, with numerous rusty seams 75 The compact bed of .*;andstone caps all the hills, and gives them the flat, table-like surface which they present at a distance. 'Report, 1659-60, j.. 73. 12 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. 2. Alternate beds of lignite, gray and yellow ferruginous friable sandstone, with bluish ash-colored, gray and yellow reddish tinged marls and clays, with three seams, of one or two inches thick, of impure lignite 125 3. Indurated yellow and ash-colored marls, with three small seams of impure lignite, with one thin layer, six inches, of reddish-yellow sandstone 60 4. Thin veins of eight inches of impure lignite, with numerous fine crystals of selenite and masses of petrified wood. 5. Variegated clays and marls, with much sulphurct of iron and two small seams of lignite 33 6. Impure chocolate liguite, with clay underneath, and large quanti- ties of selenitic crystals 2 7. Light gray and bluish ash-colored indurated sandstone, laminated clay and marls, with one or two seams of chocolate-colored im- pure lignites 148 This section, recording four hundred and twenty-eight feet of strata of the upper part of the Lignitic Measures, is like the part overlying the pro- ductive measures of Canon City coal, as given in my report (1872, p. 324). Here we have a capping of liard sandstone, two hundred feet, over scarcely productive measures, formed by an alternation of beds of soft clay or soap- stone, with an abundance of silicified wood, thin seams of lignite (the outcrop of one near the top indicating two feet), beds of clay hardened and black- ened by carbonaceous matter, etc. Most of the sections of the great Lignitic basin of the north are more generally or mostly of the upper strata. The thickness of its lower coal-measures is, however, locally very great; for Prof. Hayden, in his Report (1874, p. 21), says that the lower brackish-water beds arc more than two hundred feet in thickness, and that those that are purely fresh-water must reach an aggregate thickness of tliree thousand to five thousand feet, with from twenty to thirty beds or seams of lignite (not including thin seams of an inch or two, which are very numerous). The lignite beds average from six inches to ten feet in thickness. Though the di.>itril)ution of the strata of the southern basin has been distinctly and specially exposed in numerous reports of Dr. Hayden and his assistants, as T have myself carefully surveyed a large part of it — that extend- STEATIGRAPHY OF TDE LIGNITIC FORMATIONS. 13 ing along the base of Uie inoiinfaiiis iVoin tlic Raton to Cheyenne, and thence along the Union Pacific Railroad to Evanston— I shall especially quote from these observations given in detail in Dr. Haydcn's Annual Report for 1872. Perhaps one of the finest exposures of the Lower Lignitic Measures in regard to its relation to the Cretaceous is that of the base of the Raton Mountains, a few miles south of Trinidad, and that of the bluffs on the Pur- gatory River, opposite this last place, and mentioned above. The l)ase of tlu; Raton is composed of a series of heavy, mostly whitish, sandstone, which is conformably superposed to the black shales of the Cretaceous No. 4. This sandstone is also conformably overlaid by the productive Lignitic. The whole section, being fully exposed from top to base, is as follows:* — LIGNITIC. Ft. In. 1. Sandstone and shale covered with pines ^0 2. Soft shale alternating with soft clay (soapstone) 35 3. Outcrop of lignite, indifferent 2 4. Soft shale and fire-clay -^ ^^ 5. Lignite outcrop, thin 6. Hard gray shale with fossil plants at basef 30 7. Shaly hard sandstone in l)ank ^ 2 8. Soapstone shale 9. Lignite outcrop, good 10 Fire-clay and shale ^^ ^ 11. Lignite bed, exposed 12. Fire-clay ^ ^ 13. Soft shale 2^ ^ 14. Lignite, opened 15. Fire-clay ^ " 16. Ferruginous and slialy sandstone, covered '^^ ^^ 300 G SANDSTONE. 17. Brown-reddish shaly sandstone, with debris of land vegetables. 37 18. Yellow shaly sandstone full of Fucoids ^ ^ • Annual Report, 187-2, p. 319. I At a hUoi t (libtancf, tlm sliulo passes* to HanilHtoiif, No. 7. 14 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY— TEKTIAKY FLORA. 19. Ferruginous sandstone, barren 11 20. White compact sandstone, in bank, and barren 28 21. Hard white sandstone, in bank, witii Fucoids 10 22. Soft white sandstone, with Fucoids 32 23. Very hard block sandstone, barren 19 6 24. Ferruginous sandy shale, with Fucoids 6 G 25. White sandstone, barren 5 G 2G. Ferruginous sandy shale, willi Fucoids 8 27. Red shaly sandstone, with great abundance of Fucoids , . 3 28. Hard white sandstone, in bank, \vith some Fucoids 12 178 Between the last stratum^No. 27, and the Cretaceous black shale, no nuiddy or brackish beds are seen. The transition is remarkai)Iy clear, but, indeed, not more marked than it is between some beds of the Lignilic. The characters of tiie lower group, one hundred and seventy-eight feet, from No. 17 to 28, are clearly described after the section, as follows: — 1. Its general color is whitish-gray; so white, indeed, sometimes, that the lower strata, seen from a distance, appear like banks of limestone. 2. Though generally hard, it weathers by exfoliation under atmosplieric influences, and its banks are thus molded in round undulations; and as it is locally hardened by ferruginous infiltrations, it is often, too, concretionary or grooved in cavities, so diversified in size and forms that sometimes the face of the cliffs shows like the details of complicated architecture. 3. It is entirely barren of remains of animals. 4. On the contrary, from the lowest stratum to its upper part, it abounds in well-preserved remains of marine plants or Fucoids, which in some localities are seen even in the sandstone over lignite beds. 5. In its upper part, the sandstone or the shales of this group are mixed with broken debris of land vegetation, with which also Fucoidal remains are found more and more abundant in descending. The disposition of the strata and their compounds is about the same on the otiier side of Purgatory River, opposite Trinidad, where the section is from top downward : * — Feet. 1. Hard, ferruginous, shaly sandstone, with few remains of Fucoids, but abundance of debris of land plants 25 • Annunl Report, 1872, p. 320. STRATIGRAPHY OF THE LIGNITIO FORMATIONS 15 2. Hard, whitish sandstone full of Fucoids 57 3. Shaly sandstone, with abundance of Fucoids 50 4. Soft, laminated, ferruginous, sandy clay, with Fucoids 11 5. Ferruginous shale, with Fucoids 4 6. White block sandstone, barren 5 7. White sandstone, with Fucoids 22 8. Ferruginous shaly sandstone, with Fucoids 33 9. Black shale No. 4, Cretaceous 147 10. Covered space, sandstone and shale, to bed of river 153 In both these sections, the remains of marine plants are remarked in most of the sandstone strata and their intermediate clay beds, and as abundant at the base as near the upper part; and, in this last section, they are seen mixed with fragments of land plants, even to the top of the sandstone,cut like a tower at the point of the highest hill facing Trinidad. In passing from the black shale of the Cretaceous No. 4 to this group of sandstone beds overlying it, the fliiference in the characters is striking, not only in considering their compounds, but in the class of fossil remains which they contain; the traces of deep marine life predominating in the black shale, while here tliey have totally disappeared. The absence of the Upper Cretaceous formation No. 5 might be taken into account for explaining this difference; it is not the case, however, tor, as seen above, the Upper Creta- ceous sandstone beds are as definitely characterized by their fossil remains as a deep marine formation as the second group No. 4 Now, at the Eaton, in the sandstone above No. 4, marine life marks its activity only by the abundant remains of Fucoids, indicating by their growth a comparatively shallow water. They attest, therefore, a slow upheaval of the bottom of the sea, in wliicii they appear to have lived, for their stems penetrate the sandstone in every direction. And this indication is still more manifest in the great abundance oi dcbria o{ land plants, which, apjiarently ground by the waves, seem to have been thrown upon the shore and mixed in the sand with Fucoidal remains. This slow upheaval and its result in tlic fbruiatiun of a new land are read as in a book in the fossil remains of this group of sandstone, and every observer should forcibly admit that these memorials of old expo.se the beginning of a new era, or of what we call a new formation. It has been seen already that Dr. Ilayden has everywhere remarked the same distribution, the same confbrmal)ility of stratification, the same charac- 16 UNITED STATKS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLOllA. ters of the lower sandstone, as well in the northern area of the Lignite as in the southern, and has come to the same conclusion expressed liere, that it exposes a gradual change or transition, by the slow upheaval of the land, merely a passage from a marine Cretaceous formation to a Tertiary land formation. In the report above quoted, sections are given of the distriI)ution of the Lignite at Canon City near Pueblo, Gehring's Coal near Colorado Springs, Golden, etc., which represent the same general distribution of the strata, with inere local modifications, which do not affect in any way the general characters of the group. I can give only a few of the most important sec- lions, especially those which give a satisfactory representation of the capacity of the measures for combustible mineral. At Golden, seventeen miles west of Denver, the Tertiary Measures, thrown up by the upheaval of the mountains against a basaltic ridge parallel to their base, have been forced up in a vertical position, and thus, from this place to Coal Creek, the Lignitic beds are exposed and worked from their edges, their thickness varying from four to fourteen feet. Further north, in the Boulder Valley, the measures come to their normal position, dipping in various degrees from the mountains toward the plains, and at Marshall a tine exposition of the Lignitic is presented, as seen in the following section. It is copied from Dr. Ilayden's Report, 18G9, p. 129, and is scarcely different from that published before, from tiie same locality, by Dr. John L. Le Conte, and also from that which I received later from the proprietor of the coal : — 48. Drab clay, with iron ore along the top of the ridge. 47. Sandstone. 46. Drab clay and iron ore. 45. Coal (No. 11), no development. 44. Drab clay. 43. Sandstone 15 to 20 feet. 42. Drab clay and iron ore. 41. Coal (No 10), no development. 40. Yellowish-drab clay, 4 feet. 39. Sandstone, 20 feet. 38. Drab clay, full of the finest quality of iron ore, 15 feet. 37. Tliin layer of" sandstone. STRATIGRAPnY OF TIIK LIGXITFO FORMATIONS. 17 ?,G. 35. 34. 33. 32. 31. 30. 29. 28. 27. 2(5. 2). 24. 23. 22. 21. 20. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. o CO Coal (No. 9), nearly vertical where it has been worked, 12 feet. Arenaceous clay, 2 feet. Drab clay, 3 feet. Sandstone, 5 feet; then a heavy seam of iron ore; then 3 feel of drab clay ; then 5 feet of sandstone. Coal (No. 8), 4 feet. Drab clay. Sandstone, 25 to 40 feet. Drab clay, 6 feet. Coal (No. 7), 6 feet. Drab clay, 5 feet. Sandstone, with a seam of clay 12 to 18 inches intercalated, 25 feet. Drab clay, 4 feet. Coal (No. 6), in two seams, 4^ feet. Drab clay, 3 to 4 feet. Yellowish, fine-grained sandstone, in thin loose layers, with plants, 5 to 10 feet. ] c' f Drab clay; excellent iron ore. "'j } ^{ Coal (No. 5), 7 feet. } ]f) feet, j « [ Drab clay. j Sandstone, dip 11°. This sandstone has a reddish tinge, and is less massive than No. 14. Drab clay. "| Coal (No. 4). '} 20 feet, obscnre. Drab clay. J Sandstone, massive, 60 feet. Drab clay. Sandstone. Drab clay. Coal (No. 3). Drab clay. Sandstone, 25 feet. Drab clay. Coal (No. 2), 8 feet. Drab clay. Sandstone, about 2.") feet. 2 T p 18 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. 3. Drab fire-clay, 4 feet. 2. Coal (No. 1), 11 to 14 feet. 1. Sandstone. This section shows eleven beds of coal, some of which are worked, on a thickness of six to fourteen feet; this in about four hundred and fifty feet of measures. An analogous distribution is recorded by other sections in the Boulder Valley and northward to ten miles south of Cheyenne. Passing westward from Cheyenne, along the Union Pacific Railroad, the Lignitic measures over the Laramie Plains are covered with more recent deposits. The Cretaceous reappear in the valley of Rock Creek, and from Medicine Bow to Carbon tlie Lignitic is exposed again. At this last locality we have a section of the mines through one hundred feet of measures, exposing three beds of good coal, which have been actively worked since the construction of the railroad. The section at the shaft is, in descending, — Feet. Shale, clay, and sandstone at top 35 Ferruginous clay, with a profusion of dicotyledonous leaves 3 Clay shales and sandstone, with plants at top 18 Coal (main) 9 Fire-clay and shale, with dicotyledonous plants 20 Coal 4 Fire-clay and shale 8 Coal 4 From Carbon to Black Buttes, geological disturbances bring to the sur- face older formations in the Rawlins's Basin, but the Tertiary soon reappears ten miles farther west, in entering the so-called Bitter Creek series, near Separation, where a bed of coal, reported eleven feet, has been exposed ; far- ther, at Creston, where another coal-seam, four feet, has been passed by a bor- ing eighty-three feet from the surface; then at Black Buttes Station, where two beds of coal, one four and the other eight feet, are exposed and worked. In following the railroad passing along the anticlinal ridge whose axis is near Salt Wells, to Rock Springs, coal strata are still exposed at Hallville and Point of Rocks. At Rock Springs, two beds of coal are worked, as at Black Buttes, one four and one eight feet; and besides, as seen by the records of the borings for water made at this locality, and copied in Annual Report, 1872, p. 335, fourteen beds of coal were passed to the depth of seven hundred and twenty- STRATIGRAPHY OF TOE LIGNITIC FORMATIONS. 19 eight feet. This gives sixteen beds of eoal above the great hard sandstone, which was passed by the drill from seven hundred and eighty to eleven hun- dred and eighty feet. From Rock Springs to Evanston, tlie Lignitic is overhiid by the strata of the Green River group, which is formed of beds of shale, some calcare- ous, others sandy, with numerous strata of bituminous shale, but as yet no lignite seams, until, reaching Evanston, we find still heavy deposits of lignite coal, as recorded in the section (Animal Report, 1872, p. 838), from top of the hill to base: — Feet. Conglomerate 40 Hard yellow, fine-grained, micaceous sandstone 32 Conglomerate, topped with coarse sandstone 37 Fine-grained and intermediate layers of coarse-grained sandstone 32 Conglomerate (lower banks) .' 27 Bituminous clay 10 Shale and clay banks, mostly covered 145 Sandstone in bank 11 Alternating beds of shale and shaly sandstone lOG Shaly sandstone, very hard, sometimes in bank, with dicotyledonous plants 11 Argillaceous shale, with ferruginous concretions and remains of plants. 96 Coal 5 Clay and shale 12 Coal * 7 Clay 3 Main bed of coal, with four bands of slate 26 Shale and clay 8 Coal 5 Clay and shale 15 Iron ore 3 Clay and shale 15 I could still mention the Lignitic beds worked at Coalville, not far from Evanston; those of Sulphur Creek, near Beaver River, said to be seven and a half feet; those also of Wasatch County, in Utah, which, according to * The lower part of this section is from Dr. A. C. Peale, ADnual Report, 1871, p. 195. 20 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. Prof. Clayton, are of considerable importance, the prominent vein of the mcat^ure being thirty-two feet in thickness and of excellent quality, But the geological relation of these last lignite deposits is not as yet dctinitely ascer- tained, some of them being apparently Cretaceous. What I have said is more than sufficient to show the wide extent of the great Lignitic, its average thickness, and also its capacity and importance for the production of coal. To ascertain the exact value of the Lignitic coal, numerous chemical analyses have been made and published. An analysis of coal of the Carbon Mines is given already in Dr. Hayden's Annual Report, 1869, p. 197. Mr. J. P. Carson, the chemist, finds in it 51.07 fixed carbon. In Report of 1870, tiie bituminous coal from the old Placi^re mines of San Lazaro Mountaine, New Mexico, is analyzed mostly by Mr. Persifer Frazer, jr., and shows on eight dif- ferent analyses an average of 60 per cent, of fixed carbon; that of Evanston, 4'J. At page 321 of the same volume, there is a very interesting comparative table of the result of chemical analyses of the coal of the more important seams of the southern basin, by Mr. James F. Hodge. From it are derived the following data: — Golden coal, fixed carbon, 45.57 to 47.58; Murphey's Mine, 44.41 ; Marshall's, 49.72 ; Boulder County, 47.30 to 50.65; Carbon, 49.72; Rock Springs, 54.46; Evan.ston, 50; Coalville, 48. From analyses recorded in my Report, 1872, the results are about the same. The Carbon coal has of fixed carbon between 49.30 and 51.65; Rock Springs, 52.45; from north of Trinidad a coal, of which I had choice specimens, has of fixed carbon 57.60; Canon City coal, which is very rich in fixed gas, has 54.70 of fixed carbon, and that of the Raton Mountains 55. Most of the analyses quoted here, with a large numl)er of others, are presented in a table of the Annual Report of 1873, pp. 112-114. Though, as everybody knows, the result of analyses present always marked differ- ences, the compounds of each piece of coal taken from a mine l)eing more or less varied, it is evident that the coal of the Western Territories is a lig- nite of high value and of a quality at least equal, if not superior, to the com- bustible mineral generally known and used in Europe under the appelhition of lignite. Tlie highest average of fixed carbon in European lignite is 67 to 68, and this very rarely; it generally averages 45 to 46. This subject, how- ever, need not be considered further. Its relation to the fossil flora is far indeed, and it is sufficient to touch it in passing in order to omit nothing which may afford some knowledge of the characters of the Lignitic. THE AGE OF THE LIGNITIC FORMATION BY ITS FAUNA. 21 ^ 3. — Tlie age of the Lignitic as indicated by its geological distribution and its fauna. The first explorers of the Great Lignitic seem to have recognized it as Tertiary; for in their narration, Lewis and CUirkc mention that it overlies the Cretaceous series. The definition of the age is, however, not positively ascer- tained by the fossils which they collected from the upper part of the Creta- ceous clay bed, where the coal scams commence, nor by those procured later by Nicolet from the same locality, for they were determined by Dr. S. G. Morton as Cretaceous.* Taylor asserts, however, that from specimens of plants and animals from the vicinity of Fort Union, near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, they derive incojitestable proofs of a fresh- water formation. Taylor adds that the Upper Missouri Valley has yet to receive examination from scientific geologists, and that there can be no doubt but highly interesting results would follow from investigation in a field so rich and extensive. On the report of Mr. Harris, the associate of Audu- bon.t who ascended the Missouri to the mouth of the Yellowstone River, the committee to whom this paper was referred close their reports with the re- mark that the proofs thus afforded of a probably widely diffused fresh-water formation in the region of the Upper Missouri, reposing upon the Cretaceous strata, and imbedding remains of a manifestly Tertiary age, are just at this time invested with considerable interest, from their according with the discov- eries, recently made by Captain Fremont, of the presence of other and probably extensive fresh-water Tertiary strata in the Oregon Territory.^ Taylor him- self, considering the brown-coal formations of the Northwestern Territories, calls them Tertiary. Dr. Hayden rightly remarks, in the beginning of his report of 1874, that prior to the time when he began his explorations in 1854, the observations that had been made by various travelers in regard to the existence of coal beds in different jiarts of the West were of so indefinite a character that they cannot be used as evidence, though they may form a part of the early history of discovery. That the conclusions to which he arrived from the first on the Tertiary age of the Lignitic are not based upon superficial examination is sufficiently known by the numerous memoirs published by him from 1857 to * Proceedings of Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, October, 1841. t Proceediiit;8 of tlio Academy of Natural Scieuces of Pbiladclplua, May, 184r). t Taylor's Statistics, p. 177. 22 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. 1861, and afterward by his annual reports. Considering his opinion on the age of the Lignitic, he remarks, in the last report:* — "It is well known that I liave held with some tenacity the opinion that the coal formations of the West are of Tertiary age, and I still regard the Lignitic group as transitional or Lower Eocene until the evidence to the contrary is much stronger than any which has been presented up to the present time." It has been seen already that, in his explorations of 1854, Dr. Hayden carefully surveyed the Lignitic beds along the Missouri River from their first appearance near Fort Clarke to the mouth of the Yellowstone, and then up that river to a point near the mouth of the Big Horn. "In all this distance, about six hundred miles, following the windings of the river, the Cretaceous beds appear but once, and then only along the bed of the river for a few miles, while the entire country, with this exception, is occupied with the Lignitic groups. It rests everywhere upon well-defined Cretaceous beds, No. 5, which we have all along regarded as the highest known in the West, and have re- ceived the name of Fox Hills group, from a locality on the Missouri River called the Fox Hills or Fox Ridge, where this formation was first studied and found full of MoUuscan life.f There is a gradual passage upward from the black, plastic, shaly clays of No. 4, or the Fort Pierre group, to the yellow calcareous clays of the Fox Hills group, and at the upper portion the sedi- ments are arranged in thin layers, very arenaceous, indicative of their deposi- tion in turbulent as well as shallow waters. In these arenaceous sediments, the well-marked marine life ceases to exist, and soon after appear the brack- ish-water species.'' From this kind of formation of the Fox Hills group, it is not surprising that it is not of universal extent. It is the true transition group, locally of a thickness of five hundred feet, but it is not constant. For example, its presence is clearly marked from Rock Creek to Medicine Bow along the Union Pacific Railroad; but I have not seen it anywhere under the coal strata along the base of the Rocky Mountains, at least not with its characteristic fossils. At the Raton Mountains, and all around Trinidud, where the succession of the Lignitic to the Cretaceous is exposed at numy places, the brackish beds overlying the Cretaceous No. 4 are already Lignitic by their characters; for they do not contain any traces of Cretaceous remains, but a profusion of fragments of dicotyledonous wood, evidently rolled with the • Aunual Report, 1874, p. 20. t See section of the Cretaceous of Nebraska aud Kansas in Cretaceous Flora, p. 14. It is copied from Dr. Uayden'u AdduuI Keport, 1870, p. 87. THE AGE OF THE LIGNITIC FORMATION BY ITS FAUNA. 23 sand by tlic waves. They lliere constitute (lie lower member of those heavy beds of sandstone, which have been remarked already as forming the base of the Lignitic, and which have in their remains, and also in their compounds, the same characters as the lower flaggy or shaly sandstone overlying Creta- ceous No. 4. No trace of aiiinial Cretaceous rcniains has been found in connection with them, neither in the south nor in the north Lignitic field. When Cretaceous No. 5 is not formed, the base of the Lignitic rests on No. 4. In 1857, an account of the Tertiary of Nebraska was published by Messrs. Meek and Hayden, and the same year a map of the region bordering the Missouri River, together with sections and explanatory notes illustrating the geological structure of the country, was prepared by Dr. Hayden. The authors had then collected a great quantity of specimens of animal and veg- etable remains from the base to the summit of the Lignitic group. Sjieaking of the animal remains which were studied by Dr. Leidy, of the vegetable fossils by Dr. Newberry and myself, and of the invertebrate by himself and Dr. Meek, Dr. Hayden says,* ''None of us doubted even their Tertiarxj age"; an assertion forcibly resulting from the determination of the materials col- lected in the exploration. For, considering merely the MoUusk, we see in llu; volume of the Proceedings quoted above that of one hundred and fifty species of Mollusks described from the Fort Union group, fifty-four are of the Ter- tiary age, fifty strictly fresh-water species, and only four belong to genera supposed to inhabit salt or brackish waters. The more prominent genera to which these Mollusks are referred are Ostrea, Uiiio, Pisidium, Corbicula, Potamomya, Melania, Melampus, Viviparity etc., all of Tertiary types. The section of the Tertiary measures as recognized by Dr. Hayden finds its place here as elucidation of the distribution of tlie essential groups of ani- mal fossils which characterize the formation. The Tertiary divisions indi- cated by the distribution of fossil plants may present some differences. Tiie sulijcct has to be examined after the descriptive part of the vegetable remains. The section is copied from Dr. F. V. Hayden, Annual Report, 1874, p. 23: — •Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, May, 1857. 24 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. s a Subdivisions. i Localities. to ■a © > M c § Fine loose sand, with some layers of limestone; contains bones of Cam's, Felis, Castor, Equus, Maetodon, Testu- do, etc., some of which are scarcely distinguishable from living species. *5 o o o On Loup Fork of Platte River, extend- ing north to Niobrara River and south to an unknown distance be- yond the Platte. 6 § 1 p. 9 O >■ M White and light drab clays, wi*h some beds of sandstone and local layers of limestone. Fossils, Oreodon, Tita- notherium, Chotropotamus, Ehinoctros, Anchitherium, Hycenonodon, Machai- rodtts, Trionyx, Teatudo, Helix, Pla- norbis, Limnea, petrified wood, etc. ; all extinct. No brackish-water or marine remains. 6 o B o ■*^ o o Bad Lands of White River, under the Loup River beds on Niobrara, and across the country to the Platte. a (0 § ii 00 1 s a Light gray and ash-colored sandstones, with more or less argillaceous layers. Fossils, fragments of Triongx, Tes- ludo, with large Selix, Vivipara, pet- rified wood, etc. No marine or brack- ish-water types. § o o o Wind River Valley ; also west of Wind River Mountains. w- Fort TTnion group ; Lignite group. Beds of clay and sand, with round fer- ruginous concretions, and numerous beds, seams, and local deposits of lignite; great number of dicotyled- onous leaves, stems, etc. ; Platanus, Populus, etc., with very large leaves of true Fan Palms. Also, Helix, Me- lania, Vivipara, Corhieula, Unio, Oa- trea, Potamomya, and scales of Lepi- dolus, with bones of Trionyx, Emys, Compsemya, Crocodilua, etc. 2 o a s o § Occupies the whole country around Fort Union, extending north into the British Possessions to unknown distances; also southward to Fort Clarke; seen under the White River group, on North Platte River, above Fort Laramie; also on west side of Wind River Mountains. <6 p It appears positive that the Fort Union group cannot be separated from the Colorado Lignitic, or rather that they are both united under the Laramie group into a continuous formation. Dr. Haydeii has remarlruate braucbes, dose to each other, or distant, short, inflated, some of them like irregular tubercles. Mere fragments of the branches of this species could be obtained for illustration and description. The mode of division is very irregular; geuer- iillv the main axis is slightlv larjier tbau the primarv branches, three to five millimeters broad and irregularly dichotomous. The divisions, however, are directed either in riijht angle or upward and downward in the same fragment, and sometimes linear, sometimes inflated, taking the most diversified and irregular appearances, or inordinately inflated and narrowed. This species finds analogous representatives in Hdlymenites varius and other Algoids, described by Sternberg under the same generic name, from the Jurassic tbr- mations; the Tertiary species difteriug merely by its smooth surface and the more distinctly inflated branches. Habitat. — Raton Mountains, near Trinidad. New Mexico; base of the Lignitic formations. FITCTJS. Linn. Fncns lignitn m. Lesqs. Plate LXI, Figs. 24 and 24 a. FttCKS Ugniiam, Le^s., Annual Beport, 1S74, p. 296. Frond flattene«l. irregularly dichotomous; branches diverging obliquely ; branchlets short, terminal, linear, divaricate, tufted, forking at the point. The fragment figured here is the only part of the plant represented upon the specimens. The lowest branches are four millimeters broad at tlie base, but the size of the branchlets diminishing nearly one-half at each dichotomous division, the terminal ones are very slender, scarcely half a milli- meter broad. The upper divisions are like the first ones, short, split or forking at the point and divaricate. The substance is membranaceous and yellowish, We have here evidently mere fragments of apparently large compact fronds like those of the living Fucus auialiculatus, Agh., common along the coasts of the Baltic Sea, and which appears closely related, by its membranaceous con-_^ sistence, its mode of division, and the form of its branchlets, to the species DESCPJPTION OF SPECIES— CnAIiACE^—MUSCl. 43 described here. This Fucus has been found in a fossil state in the Tertiary formations of Spitzbergen, as recognized by Heer. Another species, Sphcero- coccites crvipiformis, (Sternb.) Schloth., Petref, i, p. 35, pL iv, fig. 1, from the Lignitic Tertiary of Bohemia, is also related to the American species. Habitat. — Point of Rocks, Wyoming Territory (Dr. F. V. Hayden). CHAPvACEJS. We have to pass over i\\\s- order of plants without mentioning, as refer- able to it, any fossil species from this continent. It is indeed peculiar that remains of tliis kind have not been discovered as yet in our Tertiary measures, for the plants of this genus are quite as frequent in the shallow lakes, the ponds, and the calcareous springs of North America as they are in Europe. The fossil Characece. are mostly known by their seeds, which, though small, could be easily discovered in the soft black shale or clay of the Lignitic measures, where they should be carefully searched for by the collectors of paleonto- logical remains. The seeds vary in size from one-half to two millimeters, and are easily recognized, though small they may be, by their round-oval form, and their surface, upon which the valves are generally marked by dis- tinct spiral lines. Of the thirty-seven species described by European paleon- tologists, eight only are known by their stems and branches; all the others are described from the size of the seeds and the disposition of their spiral lines. Of the whole number, one species only is known from the Wealden or Upper Jurassic; none from the Cretaceous. The other species have been recognized from the different stages of the Tertiary. MUSCI. One species of Moss only has been discovered in a fossil state in the Lower Lignitic of the West, while more than twenty-five have been described by European paleontologists, all from the Tertiary measures. At the present epoch, most of the Mosses, growing in the water, upon the ground, the rocks, and the trees, are easily decomposed and destroyed, naturally destined as they are to the formation of humus, and, when upon trees, to the absorption of humidity, either as protection to the roots or as a more active agent of decomposition of the wood. Most of the hard, woody species of mosses live upon the peat-bogs and enter into their composition for the production of the combustible matter. Their discovery in this case is out of question, for 44 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY I'LtJEA. wo do not find in the lignite coal any identifiable remains of the plants. It is only when these hard species of Mosses are casually deposited in imid or clay, or buried into sand-banks, that their forms are preserved for an indefi- nite length of time. The species described below appear to have been imbedded in that way along the muddy borders of a shallow lake. Of the European fossil species, all those referable to the division of the Acrocarpi have been found in the Succin by Gocppert; the others, all Plnurocarjd, especially referable to the genus Hypnwn, have been discovered in layers of clay or in beds of sandy shale. HYPNTJM, Linn. Hyp II 11 III II ay den 11, Lesqz Plate V, Figs. 14-14 b. Hypnum, Haydenii, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 309. Stem rigid, sparingly divided in nearly opposite, snbalternate, short branches, slightly inflated toward the top, or club-shaped ; leaves closely imbricated all around the stem and branches, ovate- lanceolate, acuminate, concaye. The specimen is figured as far as it is discernible. The fragment resembles a branch of a coarse species of Hijpnum, like H. rugosum, H. Boscii, especially, a spe^es which has its largest branches divided as in this fossil Moss, and of equal size. The mode of division of this plant separates it from the Lycopods, while the apparently thick leaves seem abnormal for a species of Moss. It is well to remark, however, that the matrix wherein the fragment is preserved is a hardened plastic clay, of very fine te.xture, where even deli- cate small feathers, wings of insects, etc., are distinctly recognized, and that, therefore, the form of the leaves of a hard species of Moss, even their convexity, may have been easily impressed upon that kind of soft sulistance. No trace of middle vein is visible, of course, for the species of Hypnum have rarely the nerve prominent enough upon the back of the leaves to leave an impression by compression and fossilization. The point is very acute and apparently piliferous, but this last character is not positively ascertained. Habitat. — South Park, Colorado, near Castello's Ranch {Dr. F. V. Hay den). LYCOPODIACEiE. Species of this family represent an inijxirtaiit j)art of the vegetation of the old coal-measures, not only by large trees, Lep'ulodendron, Ulodendron, and other allied genera, but by tru(; species oi' Se/aginella and Lycopodium, known by tlieir ,i.^-^. %Miry> Tq^^. . '"^-^ DESCiaPTION OF SPECIES— LYCOPODIACEiE. 45 branches, leaves, and fructifications. Three species of tlie first group and as many of the second have been publislied by Goldcnberg from the UppcT Carboniferous flora of Saarbruck in Alsatia, besides others, less distinct, known as Li/cojwdites, also from the Carboniferous, even the Devonian. From the Coal epoch to the present time, however, this family was until now repre- sented by a single species, Lycopodites fu/catus, L. & 11., apparently a Selagimlla, from the Oolite of England. Even among the thousands of Tertiary species described by European authors, no plant of this kind is mentioned. This is a remarkable fact, as the Lycopods especially thrive at our time under the shade of Conifers, and as the Permian, the Jurassic, especially, have in their flora, as far as it is known, a large preponderance of species of this kind. The discovery of two or three species of Schginella and a Lycopodium in our Lignitic flora is, therefore, truly remarkable; and it is especially fortunate that Selaginella at least is represented by a number of so well preserved specimens that the characters cannot be mis- taken. The genus is mostly tropical or equatorial ; its species, especially numerous in Brazil, cover the ground under the shade of Palm trees. An association of this kind is remarked at Golden, where the remains of Palm trunks and leaves are found in profusion. # LYCOPODIUM, Linn., Spring. Liycopodiiiin pro milieus, Lesqx. Plate V, Figs. 13-13 h. Lycopodium prominens, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 409. Stems or branches dichotomous ; divisions sliort, slender, erect or half open, distant; leaves alter- nate or disposed in spiral order, cylindrical, inflated, and obtnsely pointed, apparently connate at the narrowed base, half open, like the branches, slightly curved backward. The fragment of frond representing this species is half imbedded into the stone, or covered by a thin concretionary compound, the branches and leaves being in relief upon the surface. Tlie slender divisions, of the same size as the main axis, vary in length and in degree of divergence. The leaves, three to four millimeters long, half a millimeter wide, are loosely imbricated, open-erect, inflated toward the point or club-shaped, obtuse or acute, some of them curved outside. As seen in fig. 13 h, no trace of a middle nerve is recognizable upon them, even with a strong glass; but this may be due to the thin crust of clayey matter which covers the whole plant. There is upon the same specimen an obscure fragment, which appears to 46 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIAKY FLORA. represent a cyliiulrical ear of Lycopodiu^n, which may be a fruiting branch of this species. It is two centimeters long, three millimeters wide, and seems to bear small round glomerules, like crushed sporanges of Lycopods. These arc, however, too indefinite in form, and could not be satisfactorily represented. Habitat.— Near Elko Station, Utah {Prof. E. D. Cope). SELAGINELLA, Beauv., Spring. Selaginella Bertlioudi, Lesqz. Plate V, Figs. 12, 12 a. Selaginella Berthoudi, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 395. Frond dichotomous like the stems and branches, prostrate or creeping (f), slender ; divisions linear, at an acute angle of divergence, short ; leaves four-ranked, lateral ones spreading, distichons, linear, oblong or lanceolate, pointed ; middle leaves small, oval or nearly round, entire, closely appressed to the base of the longer leaves and covering it. This fine species, represented by very distinct specimens, seems to have had, like many analogous species of the present flora, a large, difiuse frond, either creeping or flattened upon the ground. All its divisions are dichoto- mous and apparently on the same acute angleof divergence of 40° to 50°; the ultimate ones are short, linear, obtuse or truncate, one to two centimeters long, four millimeters^ide. The leaves are in two rows, the lateral ones open distichous, imbricated by the lower side, longer, oblong, lanceolate-acute, sessile, and distinctly nerved in the middle ; the intermediate ones, much smaller, scarcely one millimeter long and half as broad, are of about the same form, oval, obtusely pointed, and marked also by a middle nerve. All the leaves are entire, alternate, and thickish, not pellucid, their surface being generally covered by a thin pellicle of coaly matter. This plant, in its char- ter, greatly resembles some of the present species of this genus inhabiting sul)tropical regions, like S. stolonifera, S. Mertensii, etc. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado {Capt. Ed. Berthoud), to whom this fine species is justly dedicated. Selaginella falcata, Lesqx. Plate LXI, Figs. 12-15 ; Plate LXIV, Figs. 13, 13 o. Selaginella falcata, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 297. Primary stem thick, round, dichotomous ; pinna) narrow, linear ; leaves close, two-ranked, distichous, sessile, open, generally covering each other at the borders, entire, lanceolate-pointed, narrowed at their point of attachment to a slender rachis, membranaceous, pellucid, without any middle nerve. Though the stem, plate Ixiv, fig. 13, was not found connected with any fragment of branches, the leaves which cover it all around, imbricating at DESCKIPTION OF SPECIES— LYCOPODIACEiE. 47 the base, but generally directed toward both sides, are so exactly of the same character as those of the branches of plate Ixi, figs. 12 and 14, that one can but consider these fragments as representing the same kind of vegetable, its stem and some of its divisions. The branches are slender, variable in length, from one to three centimeters long, linear, five to ten millimeters broad, with a very narrow rachis; the leaves distichous, nearly at right angles to the rachis, are narrowed to the base, lanceolate-pointed, and slightly falcate, generally close to each other, and often imbricating at the borders, without trace of middle nerve; the substance is membranaceous and pellucid, of straw color. A.S seen in fig. 15, some of the branches seem to come in fascicles out of fragments which appear half decomposed, perhaps the bark of the stem stem or a casual agglomeration. The characters of this remarkable plant do not fully correspond to those of Selaginella. Its divisions are not distinctly dichotomous, as seen in figs. 12 and 13 of plate Ixi, and the leaves are without trace of a middle nerve. The form and position of the leaves might suggest its reference to some peculiar species of Conifers, but the membranaceous pellucid leaves, without middle nerve, as well as the very slender rachis, are against a reference of this kind. It might perhaps represent some peculiar new type of floating Fern. The fragments are very numerous, perfectly distinct; the characters of the plant are exactly represented by the figures. Habitat. — Point of Rocks, Wyoming {Dr. F. V. Hayden, Wm. Glehurn). Selaginella laciiiiata, Lesqz. Plate LXIV, Figs. 12, 12 o. Selaginella laciniaia, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 297. Branches and subdivisioDS like those of the former species, leaves (?) deeply laciuiate ; lacina>i linear, slightly inflated towaid the point, either simple from the base or dichotomous. By their mode of vegetation and the form and division of the pinnae or branchlets, these plants are exactly similar to those described above, and indeed they seem to represent the same species under different forms. The difference is in the laceration or thread-like lacinias of the leaflets. These laciniae, distinct and in relief upon the stone, resemble the veins of Fern leaves, when, by maceration and decomposition, the epidermis has been destroyed, and the skeleton of the leaves only is left. In this case, the thread-like branches are not equally and normally divided like veinlcts, but, as 48 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY— TEKTIAKY ELOKA. seen in fig. 12 a, enlarged, they are either simple from the point of attachment or forked once or twice, slightly tumescent at the point. Their distribution in bundles along an axis is perhaps more analogous to that of rootlets of creep- ing rhizomas, and the presence of thread-like filaments of this kind upon the left branch of the specimen, plate Ixi, fig. 15, evidently part of Selagvmlla falcata, might confirm this supposition; but there is no great analogy between the characters of thread-like rootlets and those of this plant, for these are too regular in their form, their divisions, and their curve in the same direction. It may be that we have here, and in these two plants, the submerged and the floating part of the same species ; that as it happens in some Phaenoga- mous plants of the present flora, as, for example, in Nasturtium lacustre, the immersed leaves are laciniate while the emerged ones are entire. I have, however, vainly searched among species of Lycopodiaceoi of our time for any traces of abnormal divisions like these ; even Lycopodium inundatmn has the leaves of the immersed branches entire. On another side, some creeping species of Selaginella have at the base of the stems, or upon the stolons, a kind of tendrils, generally filiform, sometimes dichotoraous, divided toward the ends, and the divisions slightly inflated. This character is marked in Sela- ginella Mertensii, S. apus, but more distinctly in S. microphylla of Cuba, whose tendrils are shorter and sometimes subdivided at the end in six or eight branches. From this it appears that these two forms described above may be parts of a species of creeping Selaginella, the stem, stolons, and tendrils being represented on plate Ixiv, figs. 12, 13, the branches and leaves on plate Ixi, figs. 12-15. The specimens figured upon this last plate are all from Dr. Hayden, and, though very numerous, none of them has any trace of these laciniate divisions, except the small branchlet, fig. 15, where the thread-like filaments are simple, short, and apparently representing the base and remnants of leaves destroyed by maceration, an appearance also less definitely marked upon the lower branches of fig. 13: per contra, the specimens sent by Mr. Cleburn from the same locality have only the part of stem, plate Ixiv, fig. 13, and very numerous fragments of the form, fig. 12, but no branch with leaves like those described as Selaginella falcata. For this reason, and that of doubtful identity, they have been described and figured separately. Habitat. — Point of Rocks, Wyoming ( Wm. Cleburn). DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— FILICES. 49 FILICES. The Ferns are, after the Li/cojjodiacece, the oldest vegetables of the world. From the Devonian, where already a number of species of peculiar types are known, they become more and more numerous and predominant up to tlic end of the Carboniferous; for, in this formation, they compose at least one- half of the vegetation. After this, in the Permian, the Trias, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous, they are subordinate in number to the other groups of plants, represented, however, in constantly modified characters appropriate and particular to the different epochs. The Gkichenia, for example, appear in the Jurassic, become predominant through the whole Cretaceous formation, wherein a comparatively large number of species has been observed in the Arctic zone, in Europe, and also in the Dakota group of Nebraska. In tlie Tertiary, they disappear most entirely, and therefore it is not at all surprising that among the numerous species of Ferns described from the Lignitic there is no Gleickenia. This absence of a genus truly Cretaceous and generally distributed through this formation, present also in the Dakota group, is, among others, an important point of evidence of the Tertiary age of the Lower Lignitic flora. SPHENOPTERIS, Brgt. Sphcnopicris L.akcsii, Lesqz. Plate II, Figs. 1-1 a. S^henopteris Eocenica, Eti., Eoc. Fl. d. M. Prom., p. 9, pi. ii, figs. 5-8.— Lesqx., Annual Report, 1872, p. 376. Frond large, at least tripinnately divided ; secondary pinnaj long, linear-lanceolate, oblique to a balf-round, n.arrow racbis ; piuunles obliquely turned upward, close, contiguous, and united below tbo middle, acutely lobed; veins pinnate; divisions simple or forking once. As remarked in the first description of this species, it differs evidently from the one described under this last name by d'Etlingshausen {loc. cit.) by the connection of the pinnules from below the middle, while they are separated from the base in the European species; by the sharply pointed lobes of the pinnules, described and figured as obtuse by the author, and also by the nervation. In this species, the secondary veins are strong, flat, generally simple, each of the divisions ascending to the point of a lobe. These differ- ences are marked enough to force the separation of this species. From the fragments seen of this fine Fern, it has the same characters in all the subdi- visions of its fronds; at least the secondary pinnae are sessile, connected at 4 T p 50 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. tlu'ir base like the pinnules, and these arc cut in nioic or less deep lobes, also of the same pointed form. The mode of division of the secondary pinnae is seen in tig. 1 a. These are larger toward the base of the frond, and their pinnules are pinnately, acutely lobcd; farther up, the pinnae are simply lobed, like the pinnules. This fine Fern has also an evident relation to Aspknium Wegmanni, Brgt., of the Sezanne Flora, by Saporta, p. 317, pi. 2, figs. 2 and 3; a species described also by Watelet in the Flore Foss. du Bassin de Paris, an Eocene formation like Se'zanne. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado, where it is often found, but rarely in frag- ments as large as the specimen figured and communicated by Rev. Arthur Lakes, of the School of Mines of Colorado. Splieiiopteris membranacca, LeBqz. Plate II, Figs. 2, 2 o, 3, 3 a. iSphenopleris memiranacea, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 394. Frond bi-tripinnate ; primary pinnce long, linear-lanceolate, rigid, erect or at an acute angle of divergence from the main rachis ; pinnules narrow, linear-lanceolate, connected near the racbis by the decurrent base, pinnately 5-6-lobed ; lobes short, slightly obtuse, distinct, singlt -nerved. This form has nearly the same characters as the preceding, and may be a variety of it. Its facies is, however, very diiferent, as seen from its mem- branaceous shining substance, its rigid divisions, the narrower pinnules, all separated to near the base, by which they are decurrent along the rachis, and generally close to it, forming a narrow border. The slightly obtuse lobes and the narrow pinnules give to this Fern a likeness still more marked to that of the Mount Promina flora. It seems, however, to differ by its membranaceous substance, and by the veinlets, always simple, while they are described by d'Ettingshausen as forking in his species. The affinity is, however, evidently very close. Fig. 2 a is from a fragment representing the same species, with pinnules less deeply divided, and which seems intermediate between both forms. The substance is also shining and membranaceous. A small frag- ment, represented in figs. 3 and 3 a, has been merely mentioned in Rep., 1869, p. 196, under the name of Lustrea arguta?, with the remark that it might be a Pecopteris. It is evidently referable to this or the former species. Habitat. — Golden, same locality as the former. The last fragment was in the first lot of specimens sent to me from the collection oi Dr. J. L. Le Conte, of Philadelphia. The other specimens have been obtained by Rev. A. Lakes. DESCKIi'TlON OV SPECIES— FILICES. 51 S p iic II o ptcri s nigricans, Lesqz. Plate II, Figs. 4-r)a. S2)hcnopterin nigricans, Losqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 394. Frond polypinuate ; primary pinna) narrow, linear (as ninch as can be seen from tlio fraj^ment); tertiary i(iiiii:e at a rijjlit an^le of diverfjenco from a sli^litly winded raeliis, short, sessile, linear, abruptly rounded to a small, obtuse, terminal lobe; piunately diiiiply lobed ; pinnules in ri;;ht angle lo the racbis, distinet to near their base, oblong, obtuse, d<^eply uiululate on the borders; middle vein scarcely distinct, alternately piunately divide. Frond bi-tripinnatiful ; iiinn;u long, lanccol.ate, obtusely pointed, pinnately divided to near the r.-ichi8 in oblong-lanceolate, obtusely pointed lobes ; the lower ones distantly dentate, the upper ones more or less distinctly creu.ate ; r.achis narrow ; middle nerve thin ; lateral veins close, at an acute angle of divergence, dicbotomous. The tliree specimens figured give a tolerably good representation of the form and of the characters of a pinna of this fine species. These pinnae were evidently very long, gradually tapering to the point, the lobes becoming shorter and proportionally narrower, though distinct, to the base of the; ol)- tusely pointed terminal pinnule. The largest lobes, oblong, linguiform, are distantly dentate, while in ascending, the marginal divisions, gradually eflaced, are merely crenate and the upper ones entire ; ihey are joined in acute sinuses a little above the narrow rachis, and slightly decurrent. As the substance of the Fern is thick, coriaceous, the veins, when the epidermis is not destroyed by maceration, are not very distinct, the middle one being otlen effaced and the division of the lateral veins here and there obsolete. These are thin, nearly straight in passing to the borders at an angle of 30° to 40° from the midrib, join the main rachis between the pinnules, preserve tlie same direction, and are dichotonious, generally forking twice. The largest lobes, as seen in fig. 2, are six centimeters long, one and a half centimeters broad in the middle, where they are somewhat enlarged. The division of the veins is seen in fig. 2 a enlarged. The surface of the pinnae is covered by particles of what resembles a pulverulent matter hardened into coal. I do not know of any fossil sjiecies to which this one might be compared. Spfienopieris (^Gymnogramma) Blomstrandi, Heer (Flor. Arct, i, p. 155, pi. xxix, figs. 1-5), has only a distant likeness by the outlines of its lobes, but is totally different by its nervation, etc. This fossil Fern has a higher degree of affinity to G ymno gramma, tar- tarea, Desv., a common species of the present flora of Tropical America, especially related to some of the varieties obtained by cultivation. Habitat. — Divide between the source of Snake River and the southern shores of Yellowstone Lake {Dr. F. V. Haijdcn). 60 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. OSMUNDA, Linn. Osniiiiida afriuis, Lesqz. Plate IV, Fig. 1. Pteris affinis, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 392. Frond simply pinnate; pinnaj subcoriaceous, short, oblong-l.anccolato, broader in the middle, rap- idly decreasing to an obtuse jioint, gradually narrowed downward, and apparently rounded to the point of attachment ; borders entire or irregularly undulate ; nervation thin but very distinct ; lateral veins open, dichotomous, generally forking twice, distant. The position of the pinnae (the middle one seemingly terminal), their size and form, and also the characters of the nervation of this Fern seem to indicate its generic relation with Osmunda rather than with Pteris. The pinnae oblong, enlarged in the middle, tapering to a point, about five centi- meters long and two centimeters broad, probably represent the three upper leaflets of a frond; this arrangement may be, however, casual, for the upper pinna, which appears to be terminal, though somewhat larger than the others, and of a different shape, has the midrib exactly of the same size. The lateral veins, at an open angle of 50° about, slightly curve from their point of attachment in passing to the borders, generally forking twice, and are very distinct and distant, as in species of Osmunda. The rachis is not preserved. Recently, I have received from Rev. A. Lakes a splendid specimen, rep- resenting part of a large pinna with four leaflets, a terminal one, the others alternate, very oblique, joined to a broad rachis, which, in this specimen, as in the one figured, is destroyed by maceration, its place being merely indi- cated by the position of the leaflets. These are oblong-linear, four centi- meters broad, at least sixteen centimeters long, judging from the preserved part of one of the leaflets, which, broken apparently at the middle, measures ten centimeters from the base. The nervation is of the same type as that of the figure, the veins more generally forking quite near the base at the point of attachment to the rachis. The substance is hard, rather coriaceous. The fragment described in Report, 1872, p. 376, as Pteris anceps appar- ently refers to this species. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado ; not rare in fragments. DESCIUPTION OF SPECIES— FILICES. 61 LYGODIUM, Sw. Lyitodiuiii ncuroptcroidcs, Lesqz. Plate V, Figs. 4-7 ; Plate VI, Fig. 1. Lygodium neuropteroides, Lesqx., Anuual Report, 1870, j). /!84 ; 1871, p. 284. Pinnules cordate, two to five palmately lobed, divisions oblong or obovate, lanceolate, obtuse; middle nerve thin ; lateral veins close, numerous, dichotomous. This fine species covers by its remains, mostly leaflets, with rhizomas and their divisions, large and numerous specimens of soft-grained yellow clay. Fragments of stems or rachis are rare, even, indeed, it is uncertain if the thinly striated, flat fragments of woody tissue, varying from two to twelve millimeters in width, represent stems or rachis, for they may be merely half- decomposed branches of the rhizomas. The leaflets, narrowed downward to a cordate base, are two to four palmately parted to the middle more generally, sometimes lower; the divisions, oblong, enlarged upward, and very obtuse or linear-lanceolate and obtusely pointed, are four to eight centimeters long, even more, from the base of the leaflets ; the lateral ones generally shorter, all obliquely diverging, with more or less obtuse sinuses, are entire or slightly wavy on the borders. The nervation is simple for each division of the leaflets, the middle nerve of each remaining distinct to the base, where it is generally separated from the others by secondary flabellate veins; lateral veins emerging in a very acute angle of divergence, dichotomous, curving in passing to the borders. The lowest veins are forked three to four times, the upper ones only twice, all very close, especially along the borders, where thirty to thirty-three veinlets are marked in one centimeter. The division of the lateral veins is marked in fig. 5 a, enlarged ; fig. 5 shows the longest of the divisions of a leaflet, which appears only twice lobed. The rhizomas, two and a half centimeters broad, the largest seen, are pinnately divided in numerous alternate branches, six to eight millimeters broad, narrowly striate, subdivided in branchlets about one millimeter wide, covered with very numerous, close radicles, mostly in right angle, of various length, and of the same thickness in their whole length. Whole large slabs are covered with fragments of these rhizomas and of their branches, one of which is represented in pi. vi, fig. 1. Though the connection to the leaflets, is not seen anywhere, they evidently belong to the same species, as no remains of any other kind are preserved upon the same specimens By the division and the form of the pinnules, this species is related to Lygodium Gaudini, Heer (Flor. Tert. Helv., i, p. 41, plate xiii, figs. 5-15), 62 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. clifTering greatly, however, by the broader divisions, and the nervation, which is of a far different type. Indeed, I do not know any species of this genus, either fossil or living, whose secondary veins are so close and as many times forking, resembling, by this character, species of Neuropteris of the Carbon- iferous age. The consistence of the leaves is somewhat thick. Habitat. — Barrell's Springs, Washakie group {Dr. F. V. Hayden). I have not visited the locality and I mark the geological reference of this spe- cies as it is indicated upon the labels of the specimens sent to me already in 1870, Most of these specimens have leaflets and rhizomas only of the same Lysodium. The others bear, besides this species, fragments of Palm rays and of Equisetum Haydenii. The fragments of Palms have double, compara- tively broad (four centimeters), distinctly veined rays, the primary veins at very irregular distances, the secondary ones extremely thin, a kind of nervation similar to that of Flahellarla Zinkeni or of Sabal communis, two species described in the following pages. These fragments are undeterminable, but merit to be mentioned on account of the geological references. As yet, species of Palms have been found in Colorado and Wyoming, only with the Lignitic No. 1. But though they are positively considered as characteristic of the Lower Lignitic, or Lower Eocene, in its separation from the Cretaceous, they may be found in the upper stages. A Sabal, for example, is, in good specimens, with the plants of the Upper Tertiary, or Pliocene, of California. In this case, however, and in the presence of a Fern, type of a subtropical climate, we see a discrepancy in the climatic cir- cumstances indicated by the other species considered as belonging to the same geological horizon. No. 4, whose vegetable forms represent a more tem- perate zone. It is therefore advisable to consider the reference of this locality to the Washakie group as uncertain until we have more reliable docu- ments in regard to its geological station. The fragments from the same locality, referred to Cyperus Deucalionis, }ieer, in Rep., 1870, p. 384, though compara- ble to the species by their nervation, are too obscure to merit consideration. L. y g o d i 11 m M a r v i n c i , Lesqz. Plato V, Fig. 8. Lygodium Marvinei, Lesqx., Anuu.-vl Report, 1874, p. 309. Leaflets tripartite?; divisions oblong, narrowed to a point, serrulate toward the point; middle vein thin, very distinct ; secondary veins twice forked. We have only the fragment figured here, too incomplete to give a good DESCRIPTION OF Sl'EClEiS— FJLICES. 03 idea of the form aiul mode of division of the pinnules, but evidently repre- senting a species of this genus. The divisions are short and comparatively broad, oblong, pointed, and distantly serrulate near the point. The secondary veins are on a more open angle than in the former species, diverging al)ont 40° from the middle nerve, more distant, and forking only twice, or even once. This species has no relation to any fossil of the same genus, for no fossil Lygodium has been described as yet with serrate or dentate lobes. In the living Ferns, Lygodium venustum, Sw., may be compared to it. Habitai. — Top of gypsum series, Grand Eagle Junction {A. R. Mar- vine). This formation is referable to group No. 1. Lygodium Dcntoiii, Lesqz. Plate LXV, Figs. 12, l.'i. Lygodium Dentoni, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 309. Leafleta small, tripartite, with short obtuse divisions and broad sinuses; primary veins three, from the base, distinct; secondary veins also very distinct, forking once or twice, close along tho borders. The leaflets, round truncate at the base, rapidly widen upward, and, near the top, are tripalmately divided in short, very obtuse, entire lobes, separated by very broad sinuses; the middle nerves, somewhat thick, are joined at or near the base ; the secondary veins, also comparatively thick and very distinct, ascend at an acute angle of divergence, those between the lobes nearly straight upward, the lateral ones more curving, all forking once or twice, and becoming close to each other along the borders. This species is intimately allied to Lt/godiu?n exguisilum, Sap. (lilt., iii, 2, p. 88, pi. i, fig. 13), of the Gypses of Aix, a species diflering by the secondary ner- vation, more simple, the veins more distant along the borders, and the leaflets merely bifid. This last character is, however, of little importance, for the only specimen figured by the French author bears, on both sides of the leaflets, short obtuse lobes like those of a tripartite or (luadripartite pinnule before its full development. In our species, the leaflets are somewhat larger, two to three and one-half centimeters broad between the points of the lateral lobes, which are one and a half to two and a half centimeters long, and as broad as long. Habitat. — Green River group, near the mouth of White into Green River, Utah (Prof. William Denton). 64 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIAKY FLORA. liygodiuni conipactum, Lesqz. Plate V, Fig. 9. Lygodium compactum, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1869, p. 19G. Pinnnle or lobo linear-lanceolate, entire, slightly broader above the base ; lateral veins on a very acute angle of divergence, all very close from the base, forking once or twice. This fragment is scarcely sufficient to indicate the generic relations. By its close lateral veins it might be compared to Lygodium neuropteroides, de- scribed above. But the veins in this species, though as close to each other, are more straight and less divided. The borders are lacerated on the right side of the leaflet toward the base, and thus it appears to represent a mere lobe of a palmately divided pinnule. Habitat. — Marshal's Mine, Colorado {Dr. F. V. Hayden). RHIZOOARP^. This subclass is represented in a fossil state by Salvinia and Pinnularia only. In the present flora, Salvinia has representatives in the boreal Asiatic regions, and also in tropical America. Europe has one species only, S. natans, which, according to Pursh, has been found also in a small lake of New York State, but has not been seen until now by any other botanist. Five fossil species have been described from the Miocene of Europe. SALVINIA, Mich. Salvinia cyclopliy Ila, Lesqx. Plato V, Figs. 10, 10 o. Salvinia cyclophyUa, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 408. Leaves nearly round, truncate or slightly cordate at the base, very entire ; middle nerve thin lateral veins alternate, on a broad angle of divergence ; areolie polygonal. The leaf, finely preserved, is twenty-one millimetres long, twenty-five millimetres broad, therefore slightly reniform, with a half-round, narrow middle nerve and lateral veins very thin, scarcely thicker than the nervilles, on an open and variable angle of divergence, some of them in right angle to the midrib, and apparently running to the borders; the areolation is irregu- larly quadrate, polygonal, comparatively small, distinct. By the form of its leaves, the species is related to Salvinia Reussii, Ett. (Bil. Fl., p. 18, pi. ii, fig. 21), which, however, has a difl^crent areolation. Our figure shows the secondary veins slightly more distinct than seen upon the specimens, where they are scarcely distinguishable without a glass. Habitat. — Michlle Park, Colorado {Dr. F. V. Hayden). DESCKIPTION OF SPECIES— RIIIZOCAKP^. 65 Salvinia Allcni, Lesqz. riiito V, Fi^. 11. Ophioglossum AUeni, Lesqx., Aunual Keport, 1^72, p. 371. Leaves oval, rounded in narrowing to the ba.se; lateral vi-.l. EquUetum Haydenii, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, p. 284 ; 1872, p. 38,''). Khizomas tbick, cylindrical, irn^gularly distinctly striate, articulate ; articulations distant, bear- ing large oval or obovate tubercles narrowed to a round point of attachment, in whorls of eight to tcq around the articulations. The rliizomas, flatteneti by compression to about two centimetres in witlth, are regularly cylindrical, slightly narrowed only at the articulations ; these are distantly marked around by circular scars at the point of attach- ment of oval or obovate tul)ercles, averaging two centimeters in length and one and a half centimeters broad; the rhizomas are distinctly irregularly striate, the tubercles obscurely ribbed in the lengtli, either simple and joined to each other by their ends, like a string of beads, or double, two of them being attached to the inflated end of a single one, as on the right side of tig. 3. At a distance from the point of connection to the rhizomas, and as seen from the numerous fragments of this species covering large slabs, the tubercles become more and more elongated, and pass to mere cylindrical filaments, or rootlets, which appear to divide into radicles. The point of union of the tubercles, either to each other or to the rhizomas, is marked by comparatively large scars, three to four millimeters wide, representing a double ring with a central point. Fig. 4 represents one of these tubercles split lengthwise, and exposing in the middle a central solid axis, one and a half millimeters thick, while the parietes or intervals from the axis to the borders, four milli- meters each side, appear formed of a spongy though compact medullar tissue, becoming more compact or darker-colored near the borders. A vertical cross-section of another tubercle from Carbon specimens, like the former, shows it to be oval or somewhat flattened by compression, twelve millimeters in one direction and only nine in the other. Still another specimen of the same locality represents a linear rootlet, or rhizoma, whose main axis, four millimeters wide and central, appears surrounded by a cylinder of cellular tissue of equal thickness. This branch is marked by distant nodi and round scars, the same as those of Barrell's Springs, from which the species was first described. This species is comparable to Equisetum arcticum, Heer (Spitz. Flor., p. 31, pi. 1, figs. 1-15), which has narrower rhizomas, with nearly as large tubercles, more elongated and narrower at their point of attachment, and also to Physngenia {Equisetum) Farlatorii, Ung. (Sillog., p. 4, plate 1, 68 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA, figs. 5, 6), which bears much smaller, more regular tubercles, nearly exactly oval. In both these species, the articulations are inflated*; in ours, tliey are strangled, as seen in the figures. Habitat.— Barren's Springs {Dr. F. V. Hmjden), Carbon Station, Wyom- ing. The specimens of this locality are too fragmentary for positively demonstrating specific identity. Equisetuni Isevigatuni, Lesqz. Plato VI, Figs. G, 7. Equiaetumf Jceingatum, Lesqx., Aunual Report, 1873, p. 395. Stem or rhizonia thick, distantly and obscurely articulated, irregularly wrinkled in the length; articulations marked by round scars, distant from each other. The only specimens obtained of this species are figured here. They seem to represent remains of a large species of Equisetum by the indistinct articulations and the scars perceivable around them. The large specimen (fig. 7) is only part of a stem or rhizoma divided in its length; the articula- tion is marked merely by two scars, round in the center, with a row of oval impressions placed starlike around it, as it is sometimes the case in large fossil species of Equisetum. It is narrowed above the articulations, and appears enlarged at the nodi, but probably by a compression of the stem, more marked there than it is above ; the surface of the specimen is smooth, merely impressed by irregular wrinkles, not true equal striae. The other smaller specimen (fig. 6) has its articulation marked on one side by a round scar, and on the other by the outside of a scar of the same form, to which is attached an articulated branch, flattened in the middle, then divided in two at its end, either by normal separation or by splitting from mechanical compression. This part resembles somewhat fig. 2 of the same plate, for the branch repre- sents apparently less inflated tubercles, or the division of a rhizoma slightly strangled at the articulations and disfigured by compression. I tlieretbre consider these fragments as representing a species or perhaps two diffcront species of Equisetum, the one with a much larger stem and the scars marked by an outside row of oval impressions ; the other smaller, dilTering from Equisetum Hmjdenii, especially by its smooth surface, the less distinct articu- lations, with more distant round scars, and the irregular form of the tubercles. Characters of this kind, and too indefinite, cannot be considered as specific, perhaps. They are to be carefully considered, however, as the specimens belong to a stage of the Tertiary different from those of the former species. Habitat. — The large specimen (fig. 7) is from Sand Creek, Colorado, eight feet above coal ( W. II. Holmes); the small one from Golden {A. Lakes) DESCRirTIOX OF SPECIES— EQUISETACEJ3. 69 E q M I s e t u m W }* o in i ii d; c ii s c , Lesqx. Plato VI, Figs. 8-11. Equiseium Wi/omiiigfmc, Lpeqx., Auuual Report, 1873, p. 409. Stems or rliizoinas equally distiuctly slriato, articulate; artieiilationH Hliort ; slieatlis acutely den- tate; radicles in bundles from the articulations. The specimens are large slabs of very hard white shale, covered with a profusion of fragments of the same plants, rootlets, rliizomas, stems cruslied, pressed together, and rarely separated distinctly enough to clearly show their characters. The best ones are figured. They represent fragments of stems, or of rhizomas, articulated, slightly narrowed at the articulations, which are close, either naked or marked by round small scars, and bearing bundles of simple rootlets, diverging starlike ; all the fragments of stems and rhizomas are equally and regularly striate; tlie sheaths, as seen in figs. 8 and 9, equally dentate on the borders, and short; fig. 11 is apparently an inflated articula- tion of a rhizoma or tubercle, bearing at one end a compound branch or root- let, with a whorl of rootlets in the middle; these rootlets are all of the same size, less than one millimeter thick, linear or filiform, simple or forking, as seen on the lateral branch of fig. 8. The stems and rhizomas, also of equal size, average half a centimeter in width. Habitat. — Three miles east of Green River Station, Wyoming Territory. E4iui»>etuiii liiuosuiii!, Linn. Plate VI, Fig. 5. Squiselum Untosum, Linn., Annual Report, 1871, p. 299. Stem simple, deeply striate, articulate ; articulations short ; sheaths short, acutely dentate. Tiiough it is not possible to prove identity from a mere fragment of Equisetum representing only part of a stem and its sheaths, it is also impossi- ble to find a point of difference in comparing this stem with that of the living Equiseium limosum. As in this last species, the stem is ccjually ten-ribbed or deeply striate, tlic sheaths of the same length, blackened also in the upper border, with narrow, acutely pointed, equal teeth, appressed upon the stem. It is evidently different from the former species by the more numerous and narrower teeth of the sheath. Habitat. — Near Yellowstone Lake, among basaltic rocks. The geo- logical age of the formation is not indicated with the specimens; it may be some recent deposit by hot springs or volcanic agency {Dr. F. V. Hayden). 70 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. PIUENOGAM^. GYMNOSPERMtE. CYCADINEiE. The two essential groups of this family, the Zamiea and tlie Cycadeee, have at our time a comparatively small number of species distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The genus Zamia is mostly American, its species inhabiting Mexico, the West Indian Islands, and the mountains of the Pacific coast; one species is found in Florida. Of Cycas, no species is indigenous upon the American continent. In the old geological formation, the Cycadinece were very numerous, especially most abundant in the Trias and the Oolite, which, taken both together, have more than one hundred and sixty species of this order, out of about two hundred, constituting the whole flora of this formation, as known by authors. A number of vegetable remains from the Devonian and the Car- boniferous, leaves known under the generic name of Flabellaria, Cordaites, Nocggerathia; and fruits, Trigonocarims, Rhahdocarpus, Cardiocarpus, etc., are until now of uncertain relation, some of their characters referring these plants to this family, others to the Conifers. Very few CycadinecR are known in forma- tions above the Jurassic. One, Pteroplyllum, is described from the Cretaceous of Kansas, and another, closely allied, from that of Germany. This formation has also two Strobiles described as Zamiostrobus; a third is known from the Miocene. ZAMIE^. ZAMIOSTROBUS, Endl. Zamiostrobus! mirabilis, Lesqz. Plate LXIII, Figs. 1-1 d. ZamiostroiHS mirabilis, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 309. Fragment of a large silicified cone, checkered upon its onter surface by the rhomboidal obtuse top of quadrangular long seeds, black-colored, and apparently of a hard substance, embedded into a white celluloso-vascular matrix, separated from the common cylindrical axis by a zone of the same matter, or fixed upon it by their base. The specimen represents a fragment only of the cross-section of a large cone, measuring about fourteen centimeters in diameter, and perfectly silici- fied. As seen in fig. 1, it is composed of a cylindrical axis, c, made up of frag- ments of a dark opaque matter, agglutinated and amorphous, to which are DESGKIPTION OF SPECIES— CONIFERiE. 71 attached fruits or seeds apparently of hard consistence, represented as tl)cy are by a black compact silex, and pierced in the length by pores, or ducts, continuous from the top to the base. These seeds, three to three and a half centimeters long, six to eight millimeters broad, are quadrangular, somewhat flattened, and therefore transversely rhomboidal, as seen from their cross- section in tig. 1. From the outer surface, where the angles are rounded or more obtuse, they pass down, through a white celluloso-vascular substance wherein they are imbedded, to the axis c. In fig. 1 h, which represents part of the reverse of the same specimen, the seeds appear shorter and separated from the axis c by a zone, b, of the same whitish substance as that which surrounds them. The intervals are as wide as the space filled by the seeds. This white matter appears, when seen with a strong glass, composed from very thin, parallel, linear filaments descending from the surface to the axis. Though I do not know any fruit presenting an evident likeness to this remarkable fragment, I believe it referable to some species of Zaviiett. By the form and disposition of its surface-scars, it is comparable to species of An droit robus, a genus established by Schimper for the description of cylindrical Cycadeous male cones formed of imbricated scales, bearing sessile anthers upon their lower surface. By the position of the seeds, and also by their form and size, it has a distant relation to Zamiostrobus gibbus, Reuss, represented by a cone, which shows, in its section, oblong, obtuse seeds placed at right angles to a cylindrical axis, with the tops appearing at the outside surface. Both these cones are figured in the Atlas of Schimper's Pal. Vcget., pi. Ixxii, figs. 1, 2, 14, 15. There is, however, a great difference in the large size and in the characters of this silicified Strobile from the species mentioned above. Habitat. — Near Golden, Colorado, found by Dr. F. V. Hayden on the surface soil, without connection to any stratum of rock. This, however, does not, positively at least, force its reference to an antecedent formation, as silicified trunks, especially of Palms, and rounded fragments of the same kind, are abundantly found around Golden and in Colorado, together with petrified and silicified trunks of trees still standing and in place. The fragment of this cone has been apparently detached and drifted from the same formation. CONIFERiE. The Conifers appear already in the Devonian, where remains of large trunks have been found and referred from the characters of their internal 72 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. structure to species of this family. Fossilized trunks of Conifers have been found also in the Subcarboniferous of England. In the true North American Carboniferous, we have as yet scarcely any trace of Conifers ; at least, the remains referred to them, those of the genus Arfisia, for example, are still of uncertain relation. If the Cordaites of the coal have apparently characters which relate them to Cycadece, the species of Noeggeratkia, of the same formation, might as legitimately be referred to Conifers. This ques- tion is still in a state of uncertainty. Immediately above the Coal-Measures, even in tlieir higher strata, and in the Lower Permian, the Conifers appear in a fair proportion by two new genera, Walchia and Volzia, which persist into the Trias, with a few Cypressinece. The Jurassic has genera of the Araucarice, the Ahietinea:, and the TaxodicE essentially predominant, as in the Cretaceous also. But the larges.t number of Conifers is known in the Ter- tiary, wherefrom two bundled and twenty-five species or more are described until now. This does not positively indicate what may be the distribution in the other formations, whose flora, comparatively to that of the Tertiary, is scarcely known, except that of the Carboniferous, however, from which four- teen species of Conifers are described in Europe from fossilized wood. Of the genera still present in the flora of our epoch, Arnucaria appears in the Trias, is more abundant in the Jurassic, and absent from the flora of the Miocene, now ^inhabits the countries south of the equator, especially New Holland. Sequoia, Cretaceous and Miocene, is left in the present flora by the two well- known species of California, S. semiyervii-ens and S. gigantea. Finns, with a few representatives in the Cretaceous, becomes extremely predominant in the Miocene, from which more than one hundred species are described ; while Larix, Cedrus, Abies, and Taxodium, which appear at first in the Tertiary, continue to the present time. CUPRESSINE^. WIDDRINGTONIA, EndL Widdrins^^tonia! coniplanata, Lesqz. Plate LXII, Figs. 13, 14. Widdringtonia complanata, Leaqx., Aunaal Report, 1874, p. 299. Stem thick, disticho-pinnato; braucblets short, thick, obtuse, alternate, obliiiue; leaveB small, apparently in spiral order, closely imbricate and appressed, oblong, lingulate-pointed upon the primary branches, ovate-pointed or rhomboidal and short upon the brauchlcts. ■ This species appears to have been of a soft though thickish substance. All the specimens are flattened, even the branches, and, in that way, the form DESClilPTlON OF SPECIES— CONIFERJE—CUPEESSINE^. 73 and the relative position of iho leaves are not satisflictorily distinguishable. The primary branehes, more or less tlexiious, two to three millimeters thiek, are long, diverging in a more or less acute angle from the main axis, with their leaves distant, linear or Ungulate, abruptly pointed; the first divisions, distichous, turned upward, are variable in length, some of them regularly pinnately sulxlivided in simple, short, obtuse branchlets, otiiers elongated and simple from tlie middle. The leaves of the divisions are siiort and small, one to two millimeters long and al)<)ut lialt" as broad, closely iml)ricatc(i and ap- pressed upon each other, the upper outlines only being discernible, ajiparently placed in spiral order, a disposition, however, remarked upon a very small specimen (fig. 13), the only one where the thin coat of coaly matter is pre- served, but not distinctly seen upon the large specimen (fig. 14), which is apparently a counterpart or impression, whereupon the leaves are marked only by black points, or short lines whose relative position is irregular. The spe- cies is related to Widdringtonia antiqua. Sap. (Et., 2, 1, p. GJ, ])I. 1, fig. 4), by the form of the leaves, which, however, arc more closely appressed in our species, and more distinctly in spiral order arouixl the branchlets. The celebrated French author considers this American Conifer as very interesting and remarkable, representing either a new type or an Artlirutaxis, or even a Dacridium. Its generic relation is therefore indefinite. Habitat. — Point of Rocks, Wyoming Territory {Dr. F. V. Hayden, Will. Cle.hurn); found in numerous but small specimens. Tlie brancii in fig. 14 is the largest; the others have only secondary divisions and branchlets, as in fig. 13. TAXODIUM, Rich. Taxodium distich iini niioceniciim, Heer. Plate VI, Figs. 12-14 a. Taxodium duhium, Heer, Lesqx., Anunal Report, 1S72, p. 389 ; 1673, p. 409. Bniuclilets caducous, liliform ; leaves distaut or soinotiuies two close together, altoruate, distich- ous, uarrowed to the very short-petioled base, liDcar, obtuse, or obtusely pointed, flat, with a distinct mid- dle nerve. This species, described by Ileer in the Arctic Flora as T. duhium, and separated in the Baltic Flora under the present name, is represented in our Tertiary flora by numerous fragments, branchlets only. The cones described and figured I>y the author as subglobose, with large scales marked in the middle by a transverse costa, umbonate at the center and verruco.se, have not yet been found in our Tertiary measures. The leaves greatly vary in size, 74 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. sometimes being very small and narrow, as in fig. 12, sometimes compara- tively broad, as in fig. 13, with a distinct middle nerve. Fig. 14 represents a branch with narrow leaves, and could be perhaps referred to T. angusti- foUum, Heer (Arct. FL, p. 156, pi. xxx, fig. 1). But the lower part of fig. 13 is evidently of the same character, and therefore seems to be a form of this variable species. The American specimens, like those described and figured in the Arctic Flora, have generally linear, slightly obtuse leaves, while those of the Baltic Flora have them slightly lanceolate. Fig. 14 a is an enlarged representation of fig. 14. The leaves vary in length from four to eleven millimeters, and in width from one-half to more than one and one- half millimeters. Habitat. — Elko Station, Utah {Prof. E. D. Cope), in numerous very fragmentary specimens. I found it also abundantly at Carbon, and it was collected in profusion at Fort Fetterman by Lieut. Vogdes. We have one specimen from Evanston. GLYPTOSTROBUS, Endl. Olyptostrobus Europteus, Heer. Plate VII, Figs. 1, 2. Glyptostrobus Europceus, Heer, FI. Tert. Helv., i, p. 51, pi. ix, xx, fij;. 1 ; Fl. Foss. Arct., p. 90, pi. iii, fige. 2-5, pi. xlv, figs. 20-22; Mioc. Bait. Fl., p. 20, pi. iii, figs. 8, 9, etc.— Lesqx., Annual Eeport, 1873, p. 409. Glyptostrobus Ungeri, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., i, p 52, pi. xviii.— Ludw., Palseont., viii, p. 71, pi. xii, fig. 6. Glypiostrobites (Enhigmsis, Al. Br. Stizen. Verz., p. 73. Branches irregularly pinnately divided ; branchlets variable in length, obtuse ; leaves squamiform, imbricated, decorreut at base; male catkins ovate, single, sessile upon lateral branches; fertile catkins ovate, comparatively large; scales imbricated, semicircular, obtusely dentate on the borders, costate in the length ; seeds ovate, with alate borders. The fertile catkins of this species have not been found as yet in the American specimens communicated to me, but only fragments of branches and branchlets, like those figured here, some of them bearing male catkins, The description of the fertile cone is made from European authors. The shale bearing our specimens is, however, covered with remains of this species, branchlets especially, together with, deep, oval impressions, which seem to represent crushed cones, whose scales are deformed and undeterminable. Habitat. — On thin soft shale, near Castello's Eanch {Dr. F. V. Hayden); near Florissant {Prof. E. D. Cope). DESCRIPTION OF SrECJES— CONIFERS— ABIETINE^. 75 ABIETINEiE. SEGUOIA, Torr. Sequoia ariiuis, Lesqz. Plate VII, Figs. 3-5; Plate LXV, Figs. 1-4. Sequoia affinis, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 310. Branches long, slender, pinnately irregularly divided ; leaves short, oblong, or Ungulate, obtusely pointed, imbricated, erect, or appresstd; br.inclilets bearing fertile cones, open ; strobiles small, oval, obtuse; scales large, rhomboidal, with entire borders, a central oval mamilla and wrinkles passing from it to the borders all around ; branches bearing male calkins erect, with slightly more acute and longer leaves; catkins small, broadly oval, obtuse, covered to the top with imbricated, liugulate, pointed scales. We have of this species numerous and well-preserved specimens, some of which are figured in pi. Ixv, figs. 1-4. The divisions are generally pinnate, sometimes fastigiato-pinnate ; the leaves linguiform, more or less abruptly narrowed to a point, decurrent, without apparent trace of a middle nerve. In the fragments represented in pi. vii, figs. 3-5, the leaves are more obtuse, as also the scales of the male catkins (fig. 5). These fragments may repre- sent a different species, but they are too imperfect for exact specification. They may be even referable as variety to Glyptostrobus Europceus, being upon the same pieces of soft shale as those of figs. 1 and 2 of the same plate As represented in pi. Ixv, Sequoia affinis has a remarkable affinity to ala;ostrohm, Heer, Fl. Tert. Htlv., i, p. 50, pi. xxi, fig. 6.— Sap., fit., ii, p. 70, pi. iii, fig. 1, iv, fig. 3 a.— Gaud., Cont., ii, p. 34, pi. i,tig. 8.— Heer, Mioc. Bait. Fl., p. 56, pi. xiii, figs. 1,2. Pinus polaris, Lesqx., Auuual Report, 1873, p. 410 Leaves by five, long, liuear-filiform. abruptly pointed; middle nerve thick; lateral veins thin bnt distinct.' The first specimens obtained from this species were mere fragments of leaves, like those of the enlarged figs. 26 to 30, and were, by their narrow, filiform shape and their nervation, compared and referred to Finus polaris, Heer, whose leaves are by two only, or of the Pinaster section of the Pines. The specimen in fig. 25 shows these leaves to be by five, and therefore of the section Strobus. The leaves are comparatively long, seven to eight centimeters, about one millimeter broad, flat or canaliculate, abruptly pointed, with a comparatively thick midrib, and two or three thin lateral veins on each side. The support is not clearly defined, the leaves appearing sessile upon a basilar receptacle, rather than surrounded by a sheath. Two of the leaves seem larger and shorter, as seen in fig. 25. They are apparently flat- tened fragments, do not show any trace of middle nerve and lateral veins, and may have been crushed after maceration; this would indicate for the leaves of this species a soft and at the same time a somewhat thick consistence. The fragment of branch (fig. 31), with its rhomboidal scars, seen enlarged in figs. 31 « and 31 h, appears referable to this species, though fragments like this may represent far different kinds of Conifers. One, for example, similar to this, is figured as Glijptostrobus Europeus in Heer (Bait. Fl., pi. xiv, fig. 13). A 84 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. longer and more slender branch, with scars of the same form, is, however, referred to Pimis palceostrohus by Saporta (fit., 2, pi. iii, fig. 1 (/). The species is described by d'Ettingshausen {loc. cit.) for leaves of the same form as ours, apparently flexible or soft, many being broken or curved. Saporta gives, besides the leaves and Ijranches, a cone referable to it. As we have leaves only, the identification of our specimens to the European species is not positive. I have been unable also to see these leaves either square or triquetrous, as shown by a cross-section in Flor. Tert. Helvet., pi. xxi, fig. 6 e, and Flor. Bait, pi. xiii, fig. 1 b. They seem merely flat or canaliculate, and therefore keeled on the back. Tlie specimens bearing fragments of this Pine have numerous seeds of Conifers, one of which, represented in fig. 33, does not bear any likeness to that referred to this species by d'Ettingshausen in Hiir. Fl., pi. vi, fig. 22, but rather resembles those of Pinus polaris, Heer (Spitzb. Fl., pi. v, figs. 9 and 10). The same shales have also large scales of cones in fragments, like that in fig. 32, with broad rhomboidal apophyses, rough and wrinkled lengthwise on the borders, and a large, deep, central cavity of the same form. Though these fragments may be compared to some species of Pines, they are undeterminable, and have been figured here as points of comparison for future researches. Habitat. — Near Castello's Ranch {Dr. F. V. Hayden) ; near Florissant {Prof. E. D. Cope). TAXINB^. SALISBUEIA. Salisbui'ia polymorph a, Lesqz. Plate LX, Figa. 40, 41. Saliaburia polymorpha, Lesqx., Am. Jonrn. Sci. and Arts, 2d ser., No. 81, May, 1859, p. 3C2; Auuual Report, 1872, p. 404. Leaves cnneiforiu, gradually enlarging from the base upward, irregul.arly more or less deeply cut in obtuse lobes; middle nerve distinct to half the length; veins very thin and close, slightly curving iu ascending, many times dichotomons. The leaves of this species, first described from Vancouver's specimens, are extremely variable. Cuneiform to the base, or enlarging upward, their borders are variously divided in more or less deep, generally obtuse lobes, sometimes split to the middle, sometimes merely wavy around the top, and marked downward by folds along the veinlets, which thus inflated are like multiple primary nerves, as seen iu fig. 40, which is, however, made from an obscure specimen. In one of the Vancouver's specimens, the leaf of about DESCKIPTION OF SPECIES— MONOCOTYLEDONES. 85 the sanity lonn as in tig. 41, but much hirger, has six of these iuflated veins, passing up IVuiii Ww base, parallel to the secondary veins, and the midrib is there indistinguishable. As tar as tliey are known, the leaves vary in size from four to sevi^i centimeters long, and from two to three centimeters wide across their upper divisions. The secondary veins are very thin, scarcely distin- guishable without a glass, close, nearly straight up or slightly curved to the borders, forking in ascending. As remarked above, the specimen in fig. 40 is obscure, the veins indistinct, and the surface variously folded in the direction of the veins. Its reference to this species is not jnisitively ascertainable. Habitat. — Six miles above Spring Canon, near Fort Ellis {Jos. Savage). MONOCOTYLEDONES. GLUMACEiE. Graminetje and Ci/peracea are as yet poorly represented in tlie North American Tertiary flora; not so much on account of the deficiency of speci- mens as from the impossibility of determination of fragments of leaves or blades whose reference, even generic, is always problematic. I have, there- fore, abandoned a number of species which I had formerly described as Cyperitct: Cxjperites angustior?, Al. Br (Annual Report, 1872, p. 403); C. Braunianus ? , Heer (Annual Report, 1871, p. 285), which is characterized especially by its tubercles, while our specimens represent merely fragments of stems without them; C. Deucalionis ? , Heer (Annual Report, 1871, p. 285; Poacites l(Bvis, Heer (Annual Report, 1870, p. 385), etc., a fragment of vvhicli traverses fig. 1 of pi. xliii. As the determination of these species is still uncertain from far better specimens than those which we have in our possession, and as none better of the same kind have been discovered since 1870, it is advisable to leave them as undeterminable until others are found, which may afibrd some more light by the possibility of comparison. As seen in the description of species ol' Arundo, which are represented with positive characters, those of the seeds with glumes and pallets, and also of a Carex, we may expect from further researches impc^rtant discoveries, and, therefore, the opportunity of more evident references for the fragments which are until now of uncertain affinity. 86 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TEKTIAEY FLOKA. GRAMINE^. ARUNDO, L. Arundo Ooepperti!, Munst. Plate VIII, Figs. 3-5. Arundo Goepperii, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., p. 62, pi. xxii, fig. 3, pi. xxiii. — Lndw., Palasont., viii, p. 80, pi. ivii, figs. 1-6. — Ett., Fobs. Fl. v. Bil., p. 19, pi. iv, figs. 1-4. — Lesqx., Sapplenient to Annual Report, 1871, p. 5. CttlmiUn Goepperii, Miinst., Beitr., v., p. 113, pi. iii, figs. 1-3. Stems large, irregularly narrowly striate, marked with rouud knots; leaves large, flat, with thin veins, equal in distance, all of the same size. The large fragment of stem (fig. 3) appeals, by compari.son with the description of this species by Heer, referable to this species. The lines cover- ing it lengthwise, as also the round tubercles, irregularly distributed, are of the same character as in fig. 11, pi. .xxii. The longitudinal larger striae, mere irregular folds or splits of the epidermis, are not continuous. The specimen of ours, of which a part only is represented, is evidently of a very large stem, which, however, has been split and flattened; it does not bear any trace of articulation, and therefore may represent another kind of vege- table. The same may be said of the two fragments of branches or leaves in figs. 4 and 5, which have the same kind of nervation as the large leaves of A. Goepperii, but have no analogy whatever by their size. The surface, as seen in figs. 5 a and 5 b, much enlarged, is narrowly grooved or striate, but tlie veins are at equal distance, fig. 5 b representing them as seen enlarged twice, 5 a as seen enlarged eight times. The articulation and small tubercle in fig. 4 are characters of a branch, and not of a leaf; these fragments are found upon the same specimens with those of fig. 3, and from the same locality as those of the following species, to which they may be referable; they are somewhat inflated above the articulations. Habitat. — On fine-grained, buff-colored shale, cut off along the railroad west of Green River, above fish-beds {Dr. F. V. Hayden). The specimens from this locality are now very rare; those of Dr. Hayden, which represent many fine and remarkable species, were obtained while the work of tearing out the rocks for the construction of the railroad was in progress. My own researches at the same locality, and long time after, did not afford any discovery of importance. DESCKIPTION OF SPECIES— GRAMINEiE. 87 Arundo repcrta, Lesqz. Plato VIII, Figs. 6-8. Jrundo reperta, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 311. Stem thick, diat.antly articulate ; surface striate, marked with round, obtuse knots, either placed at the articulation or here and there scattered upon the stem; fruiting ;)aDicIe crushed, oval-oblong, bearing ovate-lancoolate seeds and pallets mixed with a coating of hairs. The specimen figured as marked above is very interesting, and proves indeed, by the characters of the preserved organs, the reference of this i)lant to the genus Arundo. The thick stem, two and a half centimeters broad, somewhat flattened, very closely nerved or striate, with veins twice as close as they are in the former species, is distinctly and distantly articulate, with an indistinct knot under the convex narrow ring of" the joint, and two larger convex tubercles at a distance above, in the middle of tlie stem. The same specimen bears a crushed ear, where glumes or pallets and seeds are mixed with a coating of short filaments, apparently hairs. The pallets in fig. 7 a are ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded at the base, evidently veined in the lower part, slightly turned to one side at the point or straight. The seeds in fig. 7 b are shorter, but as broad at the truncate or subcordale base, ovate-lanceolate, pointed, striated on the borders around the convex central nucleus, measur- ing six millimeters from the base to the point and two and a half millimeters across below the middle. The same specimens bear numerous fragments of stems and rhizomas, or roots, like the one in fig. 8, which are all flattened, exactly linear, irregularly striate, and marked without order, or here and there with oval concave impressions, in the form of rings around central points, evidently scars of rootlets. As remarked above, these fragments may possibly repre- sent the same species as the former. The stem, however, is more closely stri- ate than the large one in fig. 3 of the same plate. It is comparable to that of Fhrtigmites CEningensis, Al. Br., as figured by Heer (Spitzb. Fl., pi. vi, fig. 16). A i)allet referable to the same species is also represented in fig. 15 of the same work; it is oval-lanceolatc-obtuse, narrower tlian that of our species. Habitat. — Cut-off above Green River Station, "Wyoming Territory (Dr. F. V. Hayden). Arundo? obtiisa, Lesq^. Plato VIll, Figs. 9-9 c. Arundo obtusa, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. lill. • Stem doubly veined, obscurely articulate, slender ; ])rimary nerves somewhat thick, with four or five intervening thinner secondary veins ; pallets broadly ovate-lanceolate, acuminate or truncate; seeds large, obtuse, truncate at base. The different organs preserved all together ui)on tlic, same .specimen in 88 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. fig. 9 may belong to a species of the same kind as the former. The charac- ters, liovvever, are somewhat different. The small stem, which, flattened, measures scarcely one and a half centimeters in width, is indistinctly articu- late, and bears, just above the articulation, a round scar, about like that of the largQ stem in fig. 6, described above; but the nervation of the epidermis is double and distinct, the primary veins, two millimeters distant and com- paratively thick, being separated by four or five secondary thin veins, as seen in the enlarged fig. 9 c, about as in Phragmites CEningensis. The other organs which I refer to the same species, and seen enlarged in figs. 9 a and 9 h, are two pallets and one seed. Of the first, one is broadly truncate at the base, rapidly narrowed to a truncate or bicuspidate point; the other is narrower, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded at base; both veined lengthwise. The seed {b) is truncate at the base, short, oblong, or lingulate, very obtuse, smooth, a little shorter than the pallets, but about of the same width, four to five millimeters long, a little more than three millimeters broad. The seed has not the form of those of Arundo; and, as these vegetable remains were found in connection with Palms', they probably represent some Gramen of a trojiical or warm climate, like the Bambusice. I have, however, been unable to find any specimen with seeds for comparison. The stems and leaves of Ba?n- husia arundinacea have the same nervation as that of our stem in fig. 9. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado; very rare, and found only in small frag- ments. PHRAGMITES, Trin. Phragmites s Alaskana, Heer. I'l.ate VIII, Figs. 10-12. Phragmites Alaskana, Hocr, Fl. Alask., ji. '24, pi. 1, fig. 12. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, p. 29G. Leaves narrow, nerved in the length ; primary nerves distinct, lots distant than in the former spe- cies; veiulots obsolete, discernible only under the epidermis, three in each interspace. The fragments represcniing this species indicate leaves uiucli narrower DESCEIPTION OF SPECIES— GRAMINBiB. 91 than those of the former, and therefore a smaller plant. These leaves, from one to two centimeters wide, linear, obtuse or obtusely mucronate, arc nerved in the length, with primary veins one millimeter distant, separated by three thin, obsolete, secondary ones. The substance of these leaves is hard and somewhat thick, the epidermis thin but corneous-like, covering the veins and veinlets, and rendering these indiscernible. This epidermis is, however, some- times separable from the surface, and then the veinlets are distinctly visible. The specimen of our fig. 12 has the same size and appearance as that of lleer {loc. cit., fig. 12). But in fig. 12 b of the Swiss author, the intermediate second- ary veins are marked more numerous, or by six, though the primary ones are at the same distance, of one millimeter, as in our specimens. As the author remarks that the veinlets are obsolete, and as in the corticated specimens of ours the veinlets appear more numerous, on account of their indistinctness when seen through the epidermis, it is possible that the number of these secondary veins has not been distinctly seen, or that, as it is the case with Phrag?ni(es CEnifigensis, to which, according to the observations of Prof Heer, this new species is closely allied, the veinlets are variable in number. Though I consider our species as identical with that of Alaska, I do not assert that it represents a Phragmites. If the leaf in fig. 10 is rightly placed, and is obtusely mucronate, this same character, though somewhat less marked, is seen in leaves of Phragmites CEningensis, as figured by Heer (Fl.Tert. Helv., pi. cxlvi, fiig. 22); if, per contra, the specimen is overturned, and if that mucro- nate part represent the base narrowed to the point of attachment, this would force the separation of these leaves from the genus Phragmites^ and indicate their reference perhaps to Bambusia. But it is possible that we have here two species, as that in fig. 12, which more positively agrees with Heer's description and figures of P. Alaskana, is from a specimen of a different locality from those of figs. 10 and 11, the only ones where the secondary nervation could be dis- cerned by abrasion of the epidermis. These, therefore, might be referable to Bambusia, and that in fig. 12 identical with the species from Alaska. The relation of the specimens in figs. 10 and 11 is remarkably close to Phragmites Cretaceus, Lesqx., as described in Cret. Fl., p. r)5, pi. xxix, fig. 7. Habitat.— Green River group, specimen of fig. 12, in connection with numerous leaves of Ficus; the others six miles above Spring Canon {Dr. F. V. HaTjdeu). ^ 92 UNITED «TATE8 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. CYPERACEiE. CYPERUS, Linn. Cyperus Cliavaiieiisis, Heer. Plate IX, Figs. 1,2. Cyperus ChavanenMs, Heer, Fl. Tert. Holv., i, p. 72, pi. xxii, fig. 7, xxviii, fig. 1, cxlvi, fig. 22. — Sism., Mater., p. 23, pi. vii, figs. 5, (i. — Ett., Foss. Fl. v. Bil., p. 26, jil. vi, fig. 3. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, p. 300. Leaves large, obscurely carinate in the middle, nerved ; primary nerves variable in distance, inter- mediate veins three or more, crossed in right angle by transverse veinlets. The fragment (fig. 1) represents ajjparently part of a large leaf of this species, like fig. 1 c, pi. xxviii, of Heer, loc. cit. It has, however, no trace of a middle nerve or of a carina, and the nerves are somewhat unequal in dis- tance. It is the same in fig. 2, which has the primary nerves twice as dis- tant, and seems to represent part of a stem of the same species. In both these specimens, the cross-veinlets are discernible by a strong glass. This species is apparently very variable. Sismoiidi {loc. cit.) represents a leaf narrower than our fig. 1, but indistinctly keeled, and the distance between the primary veins is the same as in our specimen ; in d'Ettingshausen (Bil. Fl.), the same character of nervation is remarked ; our specimen (fig. 2) has the pri- mary nerves at a greater distance, double than that indicated in fig. 1 ; the spaces of different shades of color resemble the fragment figured by Heer (pi. xxii, fig. 7). These analogies are uncertain and obscure indeed, and I should perhaps have done better in leaving undescribed these fragments, as I have done for others formerly ascribed to this genus. They may be used for comparison with specimens of other localities. One from Evanston, for example, represents a flattened stem, one centimeter broad, without any articulation, obscurely striate, with primary veins distinct and variable in distance, and veinlets thin and joined by cross-branches. It has been also described as referable to the same Cyperus. Habitat. — Evanston, below the coal {Dr. A. C. Peale); Green River group {Dr. F. V. Hayden). CAREX, Mich. C a r c X B c r t li o II d i , Lesqz. Plate IX, Figs. 3, 4. Carex Berttiaudi, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1872, p. 377. Leaves fiat, marked by an obscure middle nerve and bordered by more distinct ones; intermediate veins thin, close, sometimes obsolete ; seeds ovate or broadly oval, flattened, with oval more or less pointed and broader perigynia. The leaves are all in small fragments, Ironi the nature of the matrix DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— SMILACEJS. 9^ where the retnains are preserved, a soft white chiy cut in stiuill cuboiiiul pieces by cleavage They are narrow, two to four millimeters l)roa(I, not can- aliculate, but with a middle nerve sometimes indistinct, and narrow interme- diate veinlets very close and thin, the ones nearest the borders somewhat thicker; the characters are seen in the enlarged figure 4^/. The seeds are numerous, more or less imbedded into the clay, and therefore of dilferent aspect according to the plane of their position into the matrix; small, aver- aging two millimeters in length and only half as broad, ovatcvroundcd at one end, obtusely pointed at the other, with perigynia of the same form but slightly broader, forming rings around the aehenia. Their dilferent forms are figured enlarged double in b and foipr times larger in 3«. Fig. d represcMits apparently a seed separated from its envelope, and fig. c a very small one, with the achenium attached to the base and not in the middle of tlie perigynium. All these different appearances result merely from tlic angle and degree of compression of these small organs. The fragments of leaves are reflated to those described by Heer in Spitzb. Fl., p. 48, pi. vi, fig. 45, as represent- ing a fragment of the culm of Cijperus arctkus; but this has no trace of a middle nerve. The seeds are comparable to those of Carex antiqua, Ileer (Bait. Fl., p. 28, pi. iii, figs. 18-20), but these do not have larger perigynia, forming borders as in ours. Habitat. — Golden, South Mountain, in white soft clay, with remains of Flabellaria Zinkeni {Capt. E. Bcrthoud). CORONARI.E. SMI LAC P]^. The species of this order of plants inhabit at the present time the trop- ical and temperate regions of both hemispheres. We have in the North American flora fourteen species; Europe has only three or four left in the Mediterranean regions. This small number is remarkai)le indeed compared with the great predominance of species of this order in the Tertiary flora of the same country ,for no less than forty-four are described by European palaeon- tologists from the Miocene of the south of France and Italy. A number of fragments of leaves of Smilax have been observed in the Lower Lignitic measures at Golden and Black Buttes; but they are mostly specifically inde- terminable. The best specimens were obtained at Carbon. None have been 94 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. seen until now in the Green River group, and none in the Pliocene of Cali- fornia. This seems a distribution in a contrary direction to that observed for Europe. It is, however, very probable that, as the leaves of Smilax have been found at two different stages of the Lignitic, and as even the type seems to be represented already in the Cretaceous of Nebraska by vegetable remains referable to the DioscorecB, the researches in the still unknown field of the North American flora will fill the gaps by new discoveries. SMILAX, Toum. Smilax grandiToIia, Ung. Plate rX, Fig. 5. 5»nt7ai grandifoUa, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., p. 82, pi. xxx, fig. 8.— Ett., Fl. v. Bil., p. 28, pi. vi, figs. 15, 16.— Ung., Syll. PI. Foss., p. 7, pi. ii,fig8. 5-8.— Lesqs., Annual Reports, 1872, p. 385; 1873, p. 395. Smiladtes grandifoUa, Ung., Cblor. Protog., p. 129, pi. xl, fig. 3. Leaves brciilly ovate, cordate at the base, gradually acuminate, seven-nerved, the two outside nerves ascending to the middle, the inside ones passing uj) in a curve to near the point; veinlets distant, oblique. This leaf, about seven centimeters long (point broken), five and a half centimeters broad toward the base, where it is enlarged, cordate at base, curving and narrowing upward and apparently acuminate, is in all its charac- ters of form and nervation identical with that in fig. 6 of Unger {loc. cit). It merely differs by its smaller size, a character of no moment in leaves of this kind. The secondary veins are slightly more oblique to the middle nerve. This species is not rare in the Miocene of Europe; it has been described after Unger, by Heer, d'Ettingshausen, Weber, and represented by leaves of a shape and nervation more different from the typical form than ours, for the species varies much in the size and form of its leaves, some being as broad as ten centimeters, some merely rounded, not cordate, to the base. To this last variety may be referable a leaf described in Annual Report, 1873, p. 395, whose lower half only is preserved, round, not cordate, abnormally five-nerved by the division near the base of one of the lateral veins on one side, and on the other by a marginal veinlet from the top of the petiole; the nervilles are less oblique to the middle nerve than in the leaf which we have figured. The essential difference of this fragment, too incomplete for representation, is the round base of the leaf and its small size, of the same size as that of fig. 8 of Unger (loc. cit). DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— ZINGIBERACE^. 95 Habitat. — C.irbon Station, in shale from below the main coal witli Equi- setum Haydenii, Topulus arctica, and other Miocene species. The other leaf not figured has been communicated by Dr. A. C. Peak, from the white sand- stone of Canon City Lignitic Measures. I have found it also in fragments about three miles east of Colorado City, near the Gehrung coal, with Sabal leaves, and seen it also in fragments at Black Buttes. These fragments, too incomplete for determination, may belong to a different species. SCITAMINEtE. ZINGIBERAOE^. ZINGIBERITES, Heer. Ziugiberites dubiiis, Lesqx. Plate XVI, Fig. 1. Zingiberitesf undulatus, Lesqx.," Annual Report, 1873, p. 3'JG. Fragments of a largo leaf, outlines not preserved ; surface equally undulate, multinerved, in right angle to the folds; primary veins distinct, parallel ; intermediate veinlots six to seven, very thin. The relation of these fragments is uncertain. They represent parts of a subcoriaceous leaf, with surface undulations formed by deep furrows, which, scarcely marked in some places, do not break the connection of thu primary veins. These are somewhat thick, separated by six or seven thin veinlets, indistinctly seen through the epidermis. Of the three species of this genus published by Heer, the only one to which ours may be compared is 2^. mul- tinervis (Fl. Tert. Helv., iii, p. 172, pi. cxlviii, figs. 13-15). It represents some traces of the outlines of a large leaf, with a thick midrib, its surface distinctly nerved with somewhat undulate primary veins, which, as seen in fig. 15 b, have five thin intermediate veinlets. The character of the nerva- tion is therefore the same as in the fragments which I refer to this genus, the primary veins being at the same distance, of about three millimeters, as in fig. 14, and in some places scarcely two millimeters, as in figs. 13 and 15 of the same author. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado Territory; very rare. * The uame of Z. undulatus, sp. nov., was employed by mistake in the short description of this species, the same having been used by Heer in Bait. Fl., p. 64, a work then unknown to me. 96 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TEKTIAEY FLOKA. MOSACE^. MUSOPHYLLUM, Goepp. miisopliylluiii complicatum, Lesqz. Plate XV, Figs. 1-6. ilusopliylhim eompUcatum, Lesqx., Annual Keport, 1873, p. 418. Stipe thick, wrinkled-striate in the length ; leaves large, with a thick, irregularly veined midrib; veins distinct, but very thin, simple or dichotomons toward the borders, more or less oblique to the midrib. Stipe thick, wrinkled or striate, with parallel lines much larger and more distant and more irregular than the veins of the leaves; leaves very large with undulate entire borders, apparently parallel to the irregularly veined midrib, closely narrowly veined; veins thin, generally simple, scarcely one- third of a millimeter distant, sometimes forking near the borders, joining the midrib in an acute angle of divergence, then open and in right angle to it. The nervation is exposed in its details in fig. 3 a, representing the point of a small leaf, which seems attached by its whole base to the stipe. The exact characters of these leaves, especially their form, their size, and their relation to the main stem, or stipe, are very obscure. I have found a bed of shale nearly one foot thick filled entirely with fragments of this species and detached leaves of a Sapindus, and have worked a whole day with a miner, trying, without avail, to get specimens more definite than those which are figured here. Large pieces of shale are covered with fragments of leaves, folded in various ways, where no trace of any middle nerve may be discovered. This proves the large size of these leaves, which, however, may be sometimes narrow and linear, as seen in fig. 1, where the borders are clearly defined on both sides of the large, flat, striate midrib, by a black, slightly inflated, undulate line, like that of the borders of fig. 2. The frag- ment in fig. 3 represents, it seems, a stipe with part of a descending rhizoma, which has the same kind of surface wrinkles, and above it a pedicel obliquely placed upon the stipe, and who.se top is covered and obliterated by folded portions of leaves. The midrib, irregularly striate, is more distinctly seen in fig 1, and less so in fig. 2, where it is covered at the base by fragments, perhaps referable to leaves, but whose nervation is coarser and more distant than in any of the numerous portions of leaves of my specimens; the undu- late entire borders arc not laceration of a broad linear leaf, but true bor- ders. Fig. 4 has the veins very close ; it may represent the top of a young DEiCKlPTION OF SPECIES— ENSAT^. 97 leaf, the veins apparently converge toward the niuldle, as it happens some- times at the top of a middle effacing nerve. The lower fragment of fig. 2 pertains to the same leaf split in the middle; it has its borders still more distinctly defined. The specimens bear these crushed leaves generally mixed with fragments of rhizomas and radicles (fig. 6), whose ultimate divisions are short, capillary, and so immerous that they cover sometimes whole specimens as by a thick felt, so that every kind of form and every trace of the stone are obliterated. The rootlets are linear, flattened, resembling those of Phragmites CEningensis, while the rhizomas, or perhaps their ])rimary divisions, measuring seventeen millimeters in thickness, are straight, narrowly striate, like the diverging branches of fig. 3, exactly linear, with branches half as thick, passing down in an acute angle of divergence, bearing rows of somewhat di.stant scars, formed by double, deep, circular lines and a central vascular point. These roots and rootlets evidently pertain to this species, for the leaves of Sapindus ohtusifolius are rarely mixed with those of this Musopkyllum, and are found separately and in profusion at a little distance of the same bed of shale. Mr. Cleburii, who visited the same place, collected only leaves of Sajnndus, with a single one of Alnus Kefersteinii and no fragments of MusophyUum. The surface of the leaves of our species is sometimes covered with parts of the epidermis, which, seen with a strong glass, appears marked crosswise with thin veinlets, ag in M. bllinicuin, Ett. (Bil. Fl., p. 28, pi. vi, fig. 11). But in this last species, the veins are not in an acute angle of divergence to the midrib, and then open and in right angle to it, a character remarked in the American form, and also in M. hohe.micum^ Ung. (Sillog., p. 8, pi. 1, fig. 13), which, however, differs by thinner, still closer veins, without cross-veinlets. Another species, M. speciosum, Sap. (fit., i, p. 77, pi. v, fig. 2), is repre- sented by a fragment without middle nerve, the veins being thin and crossed by veinlets, and therefore of the same character as in the American species, differing, however, by the position of the veins, very oblique to the borders. This last species is Upper Eocene, or from the Gypses of Aix; the others Miocene. Habitat. — Shale over a thin bed of coal, eight miles southeast of Green River station; referable to the Washakie group. ENSATil. This class of plants, and that of the Fluviales, so abundantly represented in the flora of the present time, have left very few traces of their life during 7 T F 98 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. the geological epochs. Scarcely a dozen species have been described by European authors as referable to the first division; the second has about sixty, half of which belong to the genus Potamogeton. HYDEOCHAllIDE^. OTTELIA, Pers. Ottelia Americaua, Lesqz. Plate LXI, Fig. 8. OUdia Americana, Lesqx., Annual Eeport, 1874, p. 300. Spathe oval, narrowed to a round, striate pedicel, surrounded by an undulate, wrinkled fringe, truncate or emarginato at the top. The figured specimen is the only one seen of this species. It represents an oval, tumescent, convex nucleus, the center of a spathe, wrinkled, striate in the length, three and a half centimeters long, seventeen millimeters broad in the middle, narrovs^ed to a thinly striated or veined, half-round pedicel, twelve millimeters long and a little more than two millimeters broad. In the middle of the spathe, the longitudinal striae are thick and deep, irregular, gradually passing toward the base to narrow, parallel lines, which enter the pedicel. This spathe is surrounded by an undulate wing, wrinkled across, eight millimeters broad in the middle, gradually narrowing to the base of the spathe, where it joins the enlarging pedicel. The cross-wrinkles of this wing correspond to the sinuses of the undulations. The determination of this fine and remarkable species is due to Count Saporta, to whom I owe the communication of a good figure of Ottelia alis- moides Pers., a living species of Ceylon. The only difference is that, in the living plant, a triphylle calix is persistent at the top of the spathe, while in ours its place is occupied by part of the wing, which possibly represents a flattened calix. No fragments of any other organs of this species have been discovered. Leaves of one species of this genus have been described by Saporta from the Calcaire grassier (Middle Eocene) of Paris. Habitat. — Point of Rocks (J)r. F. V. Hayden). POTAME^. NAJADEJE. CAULINITES, Brgt., Ung. Stems branching, striate, marked by sublunar and round scars; leaves flat, doubly striate; rbizomas piano-articulate, with double, irregularly round scars of branches, or warts and dots, marking points of attachment of radicular lilaments. This genus is slightly modified, according to the characters of the frag- DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— POTAME^. 99 ments which I refer to it. The relations of the vegetable organs which have been described under this generic name are uncertain; the genus itself is thus temporarily limited. Caulinitcs sparganioides, Lesqx. Plate XIV, Figs. 4-11. CauUnilea sparganioides, Lesqx., Aonaal Report, 1872, p. 391. Stems or rhizoiuas flattened by compression, cylindrical in the natural state, irregularly striate in the length, horizontally wrinkled, distantly articulate or marked acroHs by semilunar scars, like im- pressions of half-embracing leaves, and irregularly round, large warts; branches alternate, distant; leaves flat, linear, veined. It is indeed uncertain if all the fragments figured on the plate represent stems only, or if some of them are referable to rhizomas. The largest frag- ment of a stem of this species is three centimeters across. All the speci- mens which we have seen, and they are very numerous, are flattened by compression. They are, in the natural state, cylindrical, more or less inflated at the nodi, semi-articulate, or cut by a deep double line surrounding the base of the branches, embracing half the stems, as in figs. 4 and 10 ; they seem, however, to bear traces of real articulations, indicated by scars of rootlets surrounding them, as in figs. 5 and 6. If it is the case, these fragments might be considered as rhizomas and their branches, while the others (figs. 4, 7, 8, 10) would represent stems and branches, with sheathing-leaves under them. The presence of sheaths is marked under the branch-scars by the deep grooves, half embracing, in figs. 4 and 10; but one is seen also at the lower end of fig. 6, which, besides, has in the middle two distinct branches without appearance of sheath, and between them traces of an articulation. For this reason, the relative position of all the fragments is not clear. Fig. 8, for example, has in its lower part a branch similar to an unopened bud, with a round wart at its base, while the upper end shows like a bud of the same form, half sheathing or embracing, with apparently a fragment of a leaf behind it. The diflerent representation of these two buds, or branches, may result from their position, the one at the top being seen flattened vertically, the other laterally. Fig. 7 shows the scar of a small branch, underlaid by a wart, a kind of scars considered and described by autliors under this name, but which may be remains of abortive or adven- titious rootlets. They seem to be very rare upon the parts which I consider as the branch-bearing leaves of the plants, as in figs. 4 and 10. These stems, when in a good state of preservation, arc covered by 100 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. a comparatively thick jjellicle of coal, which, cleaved in right angle, appears to have formed by compression the cross-lines visible upon the fragments in figs. 4 and 10. They are not remarked upon the others, which bear more or less distinct, irregular points, seemingly the scars of detached filaments or scales, as in fig. 9. I consider fig. 11 as a fragment of a leaf of this species. It is flat, exactly linear, twelve millimeters broad, doubly nerved; the primary veins are equidistant, one and a half millimeters, the space between being filled by eleven or twelve thin veinlets. The scars in fig 10 pre- sent the peculiar appearance of a row of rays surrounding it, as seen sometimes around the branch-scars of Equisetu?n. From the appearance and difference of characters of the fragments figured, it may be supposed that they belong to different kinds of plants. I believe, however, that they are all of the same species; I found them, and studied them in place, all at the same locality, where, from a number of specimens which have not been figured, their different appearances and characters were seen evidently united by interme- diate forms. I was at first disposed to consider this species as identical with Caulin'Ues horealis, Heer (Fl. Arct., i, p. 145, pi. xxiii, fig. 13), which the author sup- poses referable to his C. duhius (Fl. Tert. Helv., iii, p. 170, pi. cxlviii, figs. 1 and 2). But the characters do not agree, except perhaps in the round form of the warts, and even these have not inflated borders in our species. Heer figures and describes the stems as very narrowly and equally lined, while, in the American form, they are distantly and irregularly striate ; the position of the warts is not the same, nor are tlie apparent articulations remarked upon the Miocene specimens from Iceland. In the same shale with these frag- ments, I have seen long, ilexuous, ribbon-like rhizomas, fifteen millimeters broad, their surface wrinkled lengthwise, bearing long, linear, flexuous, simple rootlets, three millimeters broad, diverging in right angle. These rootlets come out single and opposite, or in whorls of two to four, from inflations at the point of attachment, and thus produce an appearance of articulation upon some of the primary roots or rhizomas. This agrees well enough with what is seen upon the specimens figured. The fragments in figs. 16 and 17 are of doul)tful reference. The nearly regular position of the scars in rows, and the opposite branches, seem to separate thetn from this species. Saporta considers them as branches of Salishuria. Habitat. — Abundant at Black Buttes in the sandstone above the main DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— POTAME^. 101 coal; rare at Golden. I have also referred to this species, with doubt, how- ever, a few fragments from six miles above Spring Canon, in the collection of Dr. Hiujden. Caulinitcs fecundus, Lesqz. Plate XIV, Figs. 1-3. CatiUnitea fecundus, Lesqx., Aunual Report, 1872, p. 384. Brancbcs of racemes two millimeters wide, smooth, inflated along the borders, divided in opposite, erect branchlets, half as thick, bearing on each side, and on short pedicels, simple round capsules inflated as by a central nucleus. It is very questionable if these fine fruiting branches may be referred to this genus. They have this in common only: a monospermous (?) nucula with a cellulose envelope. As I have been unable to find either in the fossil species described until now, or in the collection of living plants which I was able to overlook, anything to which they had an apparent relation, I have left them in this as yet vaguely defined genus. The disposition of the nutlets along a narrow branch like a common racliis has some likeness to that of Potamoge- ton. The capsules are mostly opposite, close to each other along the branch - lets, twelve or more on each side of an elongated common pedicel ; one and a half millimeters broad, flattened, but with a convex center marked by a slightly smaller nucleus represented by a vesicle of coaly matter easily separated from its envelope (figs, la and 1 6, enlarged). The fragment in fig. 2 represents the lower part of the raceme; it is narrowly, distinctly lineate in the length; but the divisions are smooth, with slightly inflated borders, as in the large middle branch of fig. 1. Fig. 3 represents a flattened linear fragment of a rootlet apparently detached from a rhizoma, as seen from the half-rcund scars which it bears near the upper end. These may be scars of smaller brandies diverg- ing around and from the axis, as in the former species. This fragment seems positively referable to the one described here, as no other kind of fluvial remains of plants were found in connection with it. It is lineate in the length, the lines regular and equal, crossed in right angle by narrow wrinkles, and thus has a facies similar to that of the stem (fig. 4) of the same plate. These racemes might represent the fruiting part of the former species (?). As remains of Palms were found in connection with them, they may be also the undeveloped flowers of some Palm. In the fourth volume of the Arctic Flora, Prof. Heer describes and figures, from the Jurassic of East Siberia, as a Fern, Thyrsopis Maakiana (p. ol, pi. i, figs. 1—3), which has, by its fruiting pedicels, a remarkable likeness to this species of the Lig- 102 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TEETIARY FLORA. nitic. But in (liis the nutlets arc hard, compact, all of the same form, the young and the old ones, and tlius unlike sporanges of Ferns. The analogy seems rather to be with the species described and figured as Leptomeria gra- cilis, Ett. (Foss. Fl. V. Htir., pi. xiii, fig. 5). Habitat — Erie, Colorado, sandy shale above main coal. FLUYIALES. LEMNACE^. licmna scutata, Daws. Plate LXI, Fig8. 2, 5. Levma ecutata, Daws., Eep. on the Geol. of the 9th Parallel, AppendixA, p. 329, pi. xvi, figs. 5, 6. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 300. Frond round, entire, slightly undulate on tbe edges, single or grouped; roots numerous, iiliform, proceeding from a round spot near the notch of the frond. The fronds of this species, as represented in our figure, are eight to twenty-five millimeters broad, exactly round in outline, either and more generally naked, without radicles, or bearing a fascicle of filiform very slender rootlets from a narrowed base resembling a short pedicel. Those without radicles (as in fig. 2) show the basilar (I) part in the center of the frond, and thus resemble a flattened vesicular plant. In both figures, distinct veins are seen passing up from the short pedicel, or, as in fig. 2, diverging around from the center. Comparing them with those of the author's, the similarity of shape of the fronds is striking, but the fronds figured from Canada have scarcely any trace of veinlets, a few only being indistinctly marked in fig. 5 {loc. cit.), and the fascicles of radicles are attached, it seems, to the borders without any pedicel. From the observation of Prof. G. M. Dawson, who collected the specimens, this species is found upon shale break- ing very easily, and no sufficient representation could be obtained of the spe- cies, though its remains were plentiful. As remarked by the author, it "/.v asso- ciated tvith great quantities of roots and rootlets of filiform, subaquatic leaves", and our specimens are in the same way intermixed to a mass of radicles, so thickly interwoven that it is not possible to precisely see their points of con- nection to the numerous fronds mixed with or deposited upon the tissue. Each frond, however, when considered separately upon detached fragments, looks as if it was completely surrounded by rootlets connected to or depend- DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— AEACEiE. 103 ing from it. From tliis it seems that the identity of these plants of Point of Rocks and of those described by Prof. Dawson is not positively ascer- tained. In my opinion, they represent the same kind of vegetables, and are referable to the following species, with wliich they arc mixed. Habitat.— Point of Rocks {Dr. F. V. Hayden). SPADICIFLOR^. ARACEiE. PISTIA, Linn. Pistia corrngata, Lesqx. Plate LXI, Figs. 1,3,4,6,7,9-11. Pistto corrugata, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 299. Leaves broadly obovate, incrassateU from tbe miilillo toward tho base, bordered upward by a wavy mar-in, gradually narrowed into a abort pedicel witli bundles of radicles at its base; veins going out from the pedicel in two or three compact fascicles, dividing in passing up from tUobaseof the leaves, and forming, by cross-branchlets, large irregular polygonal meshes. The leaves, round when young, arc, when fully developed, broadly obovate or round at the upper border, gradually narrowed from the middle downward to a short pedicel, varying in size from two to six centimeters long and from two to four centimeters broad; nervation distinct, formed by the°subdivision of veins, inflated into the pedicel, and dividing irregularly, in more or less dichotomous branches, in ascending to the borders, forming, by nerviUes, oblique or in right angle, distinct quadrangular areola?, which become smaller and quadrate along the borders. The lower part of the leaves appears inflated or thickened, and is generally surrounded by a deep line, the inside of which is slightly convex, and passes around and under a flattened border whose areolation is generally more distinct and .smaller. This line is more or less discernible upon most of the specimens, which arc very numerous; but sometimes it is marked near the base only, as in figs. 1, 4, 6, 7, and, when passing up, disappears into the meshes of the areolation along the inside line of the flat borders. Sometimes, as in fig. 3, it is more deeply marked up^vard, and disappears on the sides, leaving the lower part inflated as far down as the pedicel. In small, apparently young leaves, as in fig. 1, the circular line is less distinct, and its internal part does not seem inllated; even in very small leaves the Ijorders are not separately traced, and the nervation is not disconnected from the base to the circumference. 104 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. This is remarked especially in the two specimens (figs. 2 and 5) which I have described as representing Lemna scutata, Daws., but which seem positively referable to this species; the first by its nervation from the center, appearing as if a leaf, like that of fig. 1, had been inflated and compressed, and its pedicel flattened to the central ])art, wherefrom the veins are diverging around, and in fig. 5, which, with the outlines of the larger leaves, has its primary veins ascending from the pedicel to the borders, scarcely divided as yet, on account of its incipient development. As the specimens are very numerous, distinct, and the leaves compressed and imbedded into the stone in various directions, it is not surprising to see this diversity of forms, which, however, is merely casual, and which seem explainable in comparing the fossil leaves to those of Pistia spathulafa, Michx., of the swamps of Louisiana. These leaves have the same obovate shape, and the same type of nervation, by inflated primary veins diverging from the point of union of the pedicel with the lamina, and dividing upward in an irregular dichotomy, forming by cross- nervilles an areolation similar to that of the fossil species. Moreover, most of the leaves of the living plant, especially the old ones, bear on the under surface an inflated spongious coating, which covers them from the base to above the middle, especially along the primary veins, and which is exactly similar to that observable on the lower surface of the fossil leaves. It is true that the black lines encircling the intumescence are not remarked in leaves of Pistia spathulata. But they may be traced by folds caused by compression, the folding following of course the border of the part inflated by the peculiar deposit of the under side, which seems formed by an agglomeration of radicles and of their detritus by decomposition. In some of the fossil leaves, as in fig. l,for example, the disconnection of the nervation along the lower rim of the flat border is scarcely noticeable, and, though more distinct in fig. 3, a slight folding along the rim would sufficiently account for it. It is not so easy to explain tlie central appearance of the pedicel or base of the leaf of fig. 2, just in the central part of an exactly round outline, if this specimen represents a leaf of the same kind. This could be done only by supposing that the lower part of the leaf with its pedicel has been folded up, com- pressed, and eflTaced by maceration, leaving only the space marked in the upper part of the leaf as trace of its existence. The lower part has not any veins, while the other half has them corresponding in size and mode of ramification DESCRirTION OF SPECIES— AKOIDE^. 105 to those of the other leaves. As for the small specimen (fig. 5), it is scarcely possible to doubt its identity with this species; it is evidently a young leaf, the nervation is, as also its shape, of the same character. All these leaves are membranaceous except the middle inflated part, and in all, the veins are distinct, as if tiie substance of the leaves was transparent. The radicles, coming out in bundles from linear rootlets, confirm the reference of this spe- cies to Pistia, for P. si^atliulata has long flexuous rootlets of the same kind, with capillary radicles, often forming a coating on the surface of the water, and seemingly supporting the plants. Comparing these plants in any of Iheir forms, none of them can be considered as representing species of Lemna, not otdy on account of their size, which, even in the smaller specimen (fig. 5), is greater than in any species of Lemna known at our time, but especially on account of the position of the radicles, which, in Lemna, are neither pediceled nor attached to the borders. This observation is applicable equally well to the plants considered as Lem^na by Prof Dawson. No species of Pistia has been published to this time from fossil speci- mens. Count Saporta has recently found, in the Upper Cretaceous of Fuveau, France, leaves of this kind {Pistia Mazelii, Sap., ined.), a species which, as seen from the figures kindly communicated, has not any relation to ours. Habitat. — Point of Rocks, often covering large pieces of shale by numerous leaves and radicular filaments. Both Dr. F. V. Hayden's and Mr. W?ii. ClthurrCs collections have a large number of specimens representing this species only. AROIDE^. ACORUS, Linn. Acorns brachystaciiys, Heer. Plato XIV, Figs. 12-15. Aconite brachyslachys, Hecr, S[)itzl). Mioc. Flor., p. 51, pi. viii, figs. 7,8. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, p. a88 ; 1872, p. 385. Scapo rouud, narrow, striato leugthwisf, distantly articnlate; flowering ears oblique, small, oblong; flowers numerous, in spiral around the axis. The scapes, four to seven millimeters thick and more or less distinctly lineatc lengthwise, distantly articulate, bear small flowering racemes, citlier oblique or drooping, as in fig. 12, short, about one centimeter long and tiiree to five millimeters thick. Our fragments, as represented especially in figs. 12 anil 13, are so exactly similar to those described and figured by Heer {loc. cit.) 106 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TEKTIARY FLOEA. that it is impossible to doubt their identity with the European species; and though fig. 15 has the ears somewhat thick, this difference of size is marked also in both the specimens from Spitzbergen. Possibly figs. 16 and 17 of our plate arc referable to the same species. They have been described in Annual Report, 1873, p. 410, as Acorus affinis, spec, nov.? Fig. 14 repre- sents a young scape; fig. 15 a is the enlarged ear of fig. 15. Habitat.— Creston, Washakie group {Dr. F. V. Haijden, fig. 12); Car- bon (figs. 13 and 14). Fig. 16 is from a specimen from Castello's Ranch, communicated by Prof. Cope, and as this locality is Upper Miocene, its iden- tity with fig. 17, which is from Black Buttes and Lower Eocene, is therefore rendered doubtful. Monocotylcdoncs incertck sedis. ERIOCAULON, Gronov. Eriocaiilon! porosiim, Lesqz. Plate XVI, Figs. 2, 2 a. Eriocaulonf porosum, Lesqx., Annual Eeport, 1873, p. 396. Leaves basilar, rosulate, spreading, entire, linear-lanceolate, broader in the middle, gradually tapering upward to a sligblly obtuse point and downward to the sessile (f ) base (not seen) ; substance thick, spongions. By the thick, apparently porous and spongious consistence, by the rosulate superposition, and by the form, these leaves are referable to this genus. They, however, differ by their larger size and the appearance of a middle nerve. As seen in fig. 2 a, enlarged, the middle nerve is traced by a broad, flat depression, along which the veins are parallel, as in some species of this genus; Pcppalanthus melaleucus and Eriocaulum mode.stum of Brazil, for example. The leaves of the fossil species, four to five centimeters long, seven millimeters across in the middle, are broader and longer, and have also the surface narrowly wrinkled across or in an oblique direction to the middle (fig. 2 a), these wrinkles tending downward and passing down along the borders, sometimes like anastomoses of the veins. The base of these leaves is either covered by superposition of others or destroyed; it is therefore impossible to further extend the comparison. Aholhoda poarchon, Sieb., of Brazil, a species of the same group of tlie XiridecB, also offers a likeness by its leaves to those of this fossil plant. Habitat. — Sand Creek {Mr. W. II. Holmes), w ith leaves of NelumUum and other species found also at Golden, and therefore of Lower Eocene type. DESCKIPTION OF SPECIES— PALM^. 107 Phyllitns improbatus, Iiesqx^ riate XIV, Fig. 18. Ehizocaulon gracile, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 39G. Branches slouder, irregularly forking ; leaves (?) oblong, recurved or oblique, narrowed to a very sbort pedicel; nervation obsolete. Comparing originally some fragments of this plant, all still more incom- plete than the one figured, with Rhizocaulon iwhjstachiuin. Sap., as figured in Schimper's Pal. Vdg(it., pi. Ixxx, fig. 8, I found a kind of likeness in the form of the spikelets, which, when crushed, as are some of Ihc upper part of the figures, seem to represent a surface covered, like our plant, with a carbona- ceous layer, marked in the middle by an indistinct depression like a midrib. I had not then obtained the admirable work of Saporta, iStudes, where the genus Rhizocaulon is not only described in detail, but where many fine spe- cies are illustrated. From it I had to see the double error of my former nomenclature and description, Rhizocaulon gracile being one of the species described by Saporta, and this fragment of ours being without relation wliat- ever to species of this genus. It is still uncertain if the branch figured here bears leaves or spikelets rendered obsolete by compression. Some of the so-called leaves have no trace of a midrib, and seem mere flakes of carbona- ceous matter of an oval, oblong, obtuse shape, seemingly narrowed to a very short pedicel, or sessile. The fragments should have been omitted, as of a character too uncertain for description, and are mentioned here merely to correct a double error of determination. Habitat. — Black Buttes, burned shale, above main coal. PRINCIPES. PALM^. Specimens of Palm leaves and fruits are very abundant in the Lower Lignitic Measures of this continent, especially at Golden, the Raton Mount- ains, and in Mississippi. The number of species which they represent is large; but their characters, when taken from fragments of leaves, or from the rays only, are rarely definite enough to authorize specific or even generic separation. I have therefore described and figured only the types more posi- tively characterized, either by their leaves or by their fruits. The Eocene species of Palms, as represented by specimens of the Lower Lignitic Ibrniations, relate, as far as we know them until now, to lliree gen- 108 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. cral subdivisions of this family, and are accordingly distributed to the following genera : — 1. Flabellaria, Sternb., modified in the generic characters, and limited to Palm leaves or fronds whose rays are all attached to the top (either rounded, or truncate, or obtusely angular) of the rachis. This generic name has been employed, when referred to Palms only, for all the fossil species of this family whose relation is not well ascertained. But it seems an anomaly to describe in the same generic division species of Palms with flabellate leaves and acutely carinate rays, all attached to the top of an obtuse rachis, and others with either flabellate or pinnate fronds whose divisions are fixed along a generally narrow and very long rachis. 2. Sabalites. Fronds with rachis broad, often enlarged at the top, gradually narrowed up to a long acumen, bearing deeply cariuato-costate rays attached along it, and flabellate, like Sahal. 3. Geonomites. Fronds with a long and comparatively narrow rachis, simple at first, but soon pinnately divided, or laciniate, with rays carinate er half-cylindrical toward the base, joining the rachis by their whole base, sometimes half-sheathing. In describing Flahellaria longirachis, Ung., Schimper remarks, in Pal. V^g^t., ii, p. 492, that it evidently constitutes the type of a peculiar genus, which, by its characters, the length of the rachis, etc., seems intermediate between the Palms with flabellate and those witli jjinnate fronds. Count Saporta writes the same in regard to the species here referred to this genus, and believes, according to his remarks in S(jzanne Flora, p. 339, that they con- stitute a distinct group, having some analogy with the Geo7ioma oi^ the present time. This genus, according to Willdenow, who established it, is distributed by a number of species in tropical America, between 20° latitude north and 10° latitude south. Its characters have some analogy with those of (he fossil species of this division by the fronds, at least, which at first, simple and flabellate, soon divide in irregular pinnae, and become laciniate, the rays sometimes half-sheathing, etc. With the fragments of Palm leaves, and in the same strata, numerous hard fruits have been found in the Lower Lignitic. They are especially common at Golden. As they bear (he. characters of fruits of Palm, it seems advisable to describe them separately under a more appropriate name than that of Carpolithes. The name of Pahnocarpon is therefore used here for the clas- DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— PALM^. 109 sification of all llie so-called Carpolithes, whose relation to Palms seems evident. The fruits attached to a Palm leaf, and apparently referable to the same species, are described under the same specific name as the frond. The Palms, those ''noble children of the earth and of the sun", as Martins names them, mostly iidiabit the intertro[)ical regions of the globe. They live in the humid bottoms of the equatorial rivers, of the Amazon especially, on the shores of the oceans, sometimes upon the slopes of high mountains, either in dense forests or solitary, or, perhaps, grouped a few together, in vast plains deprived of any other kind of arborescent vegetation. In the North American continent, they do not pass above the 34° of north latitude, following the same distribution upon the Atlantic and the Pacific slopes. In Europe, they reach the 43° ; in the southern hemisphere, the 36°. The northern species, Chu- tncBrops, or Sabal, are of small size, and, though elegant in their form, scarcely give an idea of the splendid, graceful shape, and of the enormous develop- ment, which impart to the vegetation of the tropics a character of magnificence and grandeur of which no description, no representation, may give a just idea. Trunks of Palms of less than oi.e foot in diameter, cylindrical, simple, or clear of any branches, bear, one hundred feet and more above ground, their crowns of leaves, sometimes resembling fans, of such a size that one of them is large enough to cover and wall in the habitation of a whole family. The shape of these leaves, though most diversified, is always strikingly beautiful. In the geological times, the Palms appear in the Cretaceous, wherefrom one or two species have been described in Europe. They become more pre- dominant in the Tertiary, being already abundant in the Eocene period, where European paleontologists have discovered twenty-one species ; and still more predominant in the Miocene, from which forty-two species are described, mostly from its lower divisions and from the South of Europe. No remains of Palms have l)een until now recognized in geological formations of Europe above 52° north. Heer has described none from the Baltic Miocene flora and none from the Arctic. In Nortli America, there is an indistinct trace of the presence of Palms in the Cretaceous of Nebraska, by small fragments of striated leaves, described as Fmhellaria? minima. In the Lower Lignitic Eocene, immediately at the top of the Cretaceous Measures, the Palms are already extremely abundant at Point of Rocks, at Black Buttes, and still more at Golden, where the Eocene facies of the flora is marked, as in Europe, by a profusion of remains of trunks, mostly silicified, and thus distinctly pre- 110 UNITED STxVTES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. senting to the naked eye the well-known characters of the wood of the Palms. The collections of vegetable remains from the Raton Mountains are composed, for more than one-half, of fragments of Palm leaves. In the Eocene flora of the Mississippi, the proportion of Palms is quite as large, if not more, indi- cating, it seems, a small but gradual increase in the degree of temperature toward the south. We have, however, in the United States, specimens of large fronds of Palms from Fort Union, near the southern limits of British America, at about 50° of latitude north, and still higher, from Vancouver's Island, at 52°, the same latitude where, as seen above, the limits of Palms have been recognized in Europe at the Miocene epoch. From the Eocene times, the Palms seem to gradually lose in preponderance in the subsequent formation of this continent. No specimens of this kind of plants have been seen at Evanston, Carbon, or the Washakie (Laramie) groups. One species is represented in the Miocene of Oregon and one in the Pliocene of the chalk bluffs of Nevada County, California, a formation from which we know only fifty species of plants, whose characters indicate a climate analogous to that of the Gulf shores, or of the American Southern Atlantic States, at our time. Hence, a gradual diminution of atmospheric heat seems to have been continued from the Eocene to the Glacial epoch, at least, in considering the distribution of the Palms. FLABELLAEIA, Schp. Flabellaria Ziiikenit, Heer. Plate IX, Figs. 6, 8. Flalellaria ZinTcenii, Heer, Boernst. Fl., p. 11, pi. ii, figs. 3, 4.— Lesqx., Annual Report, 1872, p. 377. Eays linear, flat or obscurely carinate ; primary veins distinct, with four to six intermediate tbin veinlets. I refer with some doubt to this species fragments of Palm rays found altogether in great number, but in such small specimens that the characters of the leaves are lefl indefinite. These rays, rarely conjoined, or generally separated like blades of grass, varying from five to seventeen millimeters in width, are flat, somcliraes convex, as in b, fig. 7, or obscurely carinate, with thick primary nerves, slightly convex upon their surface, one to one and a half millimeters apart, separated by four to six thin intermediate veins, accord- ing to the distance of the nerves, and distinctly seen with the glass, as marked in the same fig. 7 c, enlarged four times. The best of our fragments have been figured here. Tiiough very similar to those which have been figured DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— PALM^. HI and described by the author, I cannot consider this species as positively iden- tified with that of Boernstaedt, whose rays are Hghtly {leviter) carinate with intermediate veinlets sometimes three to eleven, though more generally five to seven, according to Ileer's remark. Our specimens scarcely show any trace of carina, the primary nerves being sometimes convex, but they have all the same appearance upon larger or narrow rays; and the intermediate veinlets are four to six in number, rarely seven. In some fragments, as in fig. 8, the nerves are effaced, and the intervals, much larger, are apparently filled by numerous indistinct veinlets. The fragment a to Z), fig. 7, apparently represents the same part as that of fig. 5 of Ileer, loc. ciL, which the author considers as a floral involucre. The veins are all equal, and close to each other. The presence of these fragments among both the European and the American specimens, and their similarity of characters, seem to prove identity of species. Habitat. — Golden, Soutli Table Mountain, in a stratum of white hard- ened clay, with Carez Ikrthoudi. Fragments apparently referable to this species are mixed with Lygodkm neuropteroides from Barrell's Springs. Flabellaria Eoceiiica, liesqz. Plate XIII, Figs. 1-3. FlaleUaria Eocevica, Lcsqx., Annual Report, 1872, p. 391. Sahal communis, Lesqx., Annual Report, lb74, p. 311. Frond large, rays convex, semi-cylindrical toward the base, flattened in the upper part, diverging from the top of a broad rachis, distinctly nerved; primary nerves distant; intermediate veins thin, close, averaging ten in number ; rachis truncate at its upper face, rapidly narrowed to a point on its lower The two figures (1 and li) are counterparts, and therefore show the two sides of the fragment of a frond and of its petiole. The rachis is flat or about four to five miUimeters thick in the middle, cut in a broad angle on the upper side, more elongated on the lower, the prolongation measuring about two and a half centimeters, with the tip abruptly and obtusely pointed ; sur- face very narrowly and somewhat irregularly veined lengthwise. Rays all attached to the top of the rachis, round truncate at base, comparatively few, about thirty, diverging on both sides at right angle, deeply carinate, without costse at the upper, half-round surface, rapidly increasing in width, and flat in the upper part of the frond ; carina? broadly costate ; primary veins more or less distant and thick, generally black when the epidermis is removed, one to two miUimeters apart ; intermediate veins thin and numerous, ten to twelve in the intervals of two millimeters. I refer to this species the frag- 112 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. ment of fig. 3, which shows the same kind of nervation, but more distinct than in figs. 1 and 2. In fig. 1, however, the impression of the right side of the specimen shows the rays flat, or nearly so, like those of fig. 3, with distinct though very thin veinlets. Fragments of this kind are very common at Golden, at the same locality where I could compare them in place; but I was unable to find any larger part of the fronds, which, considering the petiole, do not seem to have been of great size. The species is compara- ble to F. Lamanonis, Brgt, as described in Sap., fit., i, p. 70, pi. iv, fig. 5, and especially to F. {Sahal) Andegaviensis, Schp., Pal. Vc'g(it., ii, p. 490, a species not yet figured, but which, according to the observation of Saporta, is closely related to that of Golden, and is found in the Upper Eocene of La Sarthe, France. F. Lamanonis is from the same formation, the upper part of the Gypses of Aix. The position of the rays at the top of the rachis, not passing lower and not narrowed to an acute base, seems to indicate the refer- ence of this species to Flabellaria rather than to Sabal. Habitat. — Golden, especially common at the locality called Table Mount- ain, south of the School of Mines; Black Buttes, where I found the specimen of figs. 1 and 2 ^ SABALITES. Sabalitcs Orayanus, Lesqz. TtiWe XII, Figs. 1,2. Sabdl Grayana, Lesqx., Trans. Am. Pbilos. Soc, xiii, p. 412, pi. xiv, figs. 4-6. Frond large; racbis dilated under the rays, taper-pointed and acuminate; rays very numerous; primary veins thick, nearly at eci- mens. In this case, however, as in otiiers, where identity with European 118 U^'1TED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. species is doubtful, it is advisable to use different names in consideration of suggestive modifications of characters by influence of geographical distribution. Habitat. — Raton Mountains, near Fischer's Peak {Dr. F. V. Hnydcn). Gconomites Ungeri, sp. nov. Plate XI, Fig. 8. Frond large, flabellate or flabollato-piniiate(?) ; r.ays numerous, undivided, half-round, narrow, joining \>y tbeir wholo base a broad, nerved rachis. The fragment is comparatively small, but some of the characters of the leaf which it represents are clearly defined. The frond was a very large one, as seen from its broad rachis, which, though broken in its length, is still two centimeters at its base, apparently gradually decreasing upward, and distinctly striate, at least toward the base, where it is somewhat concave. The leaf accordingly seems to have been broadly linear-lanceolate. The numerous narrow, inflated rays join the rachis by their whole base, neither narrowing nor decurring to it, passing up in an acute angle of divergence, 25° to 30°, and slightly curving inward. They are nearly linear, five milli- meters at the base, flat underneath, as seen in the upper part of the specimen, which is merely a counterpart of the underside of the rays, and here marked by nerves about two millimeters distant, with four or five thin intermediate veinlets. The veinlets upon the petiole are of the same kind, but without primary nerves. As far as can be seen, this species is distantly related to Manicaria formosa, Heer (Fl. Tert. Helvet., i, p. 92, pi. xviii), where is figured a splendid specimen, whose rachis is, however, totally destroyed. From the distance of the rays at the base, this rachis seems to have been broad. The relation is especially in the size, the inside curve, and the nervation of the rays, which, however, in our specimen, join the rachis at a more acute angle of divergence than in Heer's species, are half-round above, the line of separation being marked by a deep groove. In considering the generic rela- tion of his species. Prof Pleer remarks that it is not referable to Geonoma, whose fronds have a narrow rachis, with rays in an acute angle of divergence. This American species therefore would be related to Manicaria by its broad rachis only, but differ from it by the more acute angle of direction of its half- cylindrical rays, which relates it to Geonoma. Habitat. — Raton Mountains, New Mexico {Dr. F. V. Hayden). The same specimen bears the leaf described as Ficus Smithsoniana. DESGKirTION OF srECIES— PALM^. 119 PALMOCARPON, Lesqx, Fruits of variouH size and forms, gCDerally sunouiideil by a shelly pericarp, and found in connec- tion with reniaiuBoC I'aliiis. Paliiiocarpoii composituiu, Lesqz. Plate XI, Fig. 4. Catpoliihcs comjweitus, Lesqx., Supplement to Annual Keport, 1871, p. 16. Fruits oval, obtusely poiuted, narrowed to the base, where they are joined five together, striate in the length. The specimen represents a fragment of a short pedicel, to which tive oval nutlets are attached close together, the upper ones larger and apparently crushed, the middle ones oval, obtusely pointed, one and a half centimeters long, seven millimeters thick in the middle, the lower one smaller, all dis- tinctly striate in the length. This species seems related to the fruits of Sabal ? fructifera (fig 3 of the same plate). . The upper part of the speci- men is, however, crushed. Their union to a short pedicel of a close raceme relates them to the fruits of some Palms, as seen when enveloped in their spathe. Habitat. — Placi^re Mountain, New Mexico {Dr. F. V. Hayden). P a I ni ocarpou jnexicaiium, Iieeqz. Plate XI, Fig. 5. CarpolHhes Mexicavua, Lesqx., Supplement to Annual Report, 1871, p. 17. Fruit rounded on one side, rapidly narrowed to a point, surrounded by a shelly envelope, smooth or without distinct strise except a few near the point. This fruit is broadly ovate, pointed or round on one side, narrowed to a truncate point, twenty-five millimeters long and sixteen millimeters across the middle; its surface is smooth, without striae, but with a few irregular splits, which show a thin shelly pericarp. This fruit is comparable to those of many species of Palms, especially those of Astrocaryum and Badris, like Bactris inacrocarjm, Wall., Astrocaryum acaule, Mart., etc. Habitat. — Same as the former, with fragments of large rays of Sabal?, which measure four centimeters across {Dr. F. V. Hayden). P a I ni o V a r p u n commune, Lesqx. Plato XIII, Figs. 4-7. CarpoUthes palmamm, Lesqx., Supplement to Annual Report, 1871, p. 13 (in part); Annual Report, 1873, pp. 382, 3D8. Fruits large, orbicular when surrounded with the shelly exocarp, round-oval, slightly truncate on one end, broadly, obscurely pointed at the other, and very minutely and indistinctly vcine o II c o r r it g a t u ni, sp. nov. Plate XI, Figs. 10 and 11. Fruit hard, enlarged iu the middle, truncate at one end, slightly narrowed aud obtuse at the other, ribbed iu the leuffth, deeply rugose across. This kind of nutlet seems, at least in fig. 11, to have its pericarp half destroyed l>y maceration; for fig. 10, which has the same characters, differing merely by its smaller size, has the epicarp smooth. The one (fig. 1 1) is marked in the length by ten narrow costaj, and across by deep irregular wrinkles. It is one and a half centimeters in diameter, and from the exact similarity of form I consider it as representing the same species as fig. 10. The rela- tion, however, of these fruits to living species of Palms is as yet uncertain. Habitat.— Golden, Colorado; with the former. P a I in o c a r p o n s ii b c y I i ii d r i c ii iii , sp. nov. Plato XI, Fig. 12. Fruit oblong or subcylindrical, truncate at ouo end, split at the other iu two diverging or slightly recurved, poiuted lobes, distantly and obscurely veined toward the base. As seen from the figures, these fruits vary in size from ten to fifteen millimeters broad in the middle, though generally of about the same length, or two centimeters from the border of the truncate base to the points of the 122 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. lobes, whicli, in all the specimens obtained, are flattened. A number of these arc crushed and disfigured by compression, and the splitting at the top might therefore be considered as casual or a 'i-esult of mere mechanical agency. But I have carefully detached from the matrix some well-preserved nutlets, like those of fig. 12, and all have the top flattened and split, though they are cylindrical from above the middle to the base. I therefore consider this character as original, and indeed, but for this, these fruits should be referable to Oaks, their form being like that of species of acorns of the present flora; or to nutlets of A^elu?nbiiim, the Sacred Bean, which they also resemble. I believe, however, that they are referable to Palms. Their pericarp is of the same color and consistence as that of Palmocarpon commune; it is in the same way obscurely lined toward the truncate base as in P. truncatum, and the fruits are found mixed with the specimens of these two species, and also in connection with fragments of Palm or Sabal leaves. The truncate base is a character of the fruits of some species of Sabal. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado ; Table Mountain. DICOTYLEDONES. Some of the fossii species of this division of the vegetable kingdom have been found in Europe with leaves and fruits in connection with stems and branches, even with flowers. In a few cases, therefore, an exact determina- tion of these plants has become possible. But generally, and with scarcely any exception in this country, the fossil species of dicotyledonous plants are represented by their leaves only, and therefore their determination is subject to a degree of uncertainty. The leaves, however, afford distinct, even specific characters, by their form, their thickness, or consistence, especially by their nervation. A number of botanists of celebrity — A. P. De Candolle, Leopold de Buch, d'Ettingshausen, Heer, etc. — have attempted to determine by rules the essential characters of the nervation of the dicotyledonous leaves, and to represent them under peculiar names, in order to facilitate researches and the study of palaeontology. Though the laws governing the distribution of the veins in the leaves in comparison to their forms have not yet been fully discovered, we have, in the description of our fossil leaves, to rely on and to describe all the characters which render them identifiable, and therefore to use all the materials obtainable for that purpose. The terminology serviceable for the description of the forms of the leaves is generally known by botanists, DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— DICOTYLEDONOUS LEAVES. 123 or is found explained in text-books, especially in Gray's Lessons in Botany. But that which relates to nervation forms a separate section, considered only in works on vegetable palaeontology, rarely accessible to the student. I there- fore give herewith an abridged explanation of the terms which may be used ill describing the American Tertiary plants in this memoir. For some authors, as for d'Ettingshausen, who has given to the subject a careful and long study, the groups fixed by the characters of the nervation are numerous, and their distinction is somewhat embarrassing in many cases. Heer's classification is by far the simplest, and more comprehensible. It has been admitted by many European authors, especially by Schimper in his Paldontologie V(ig^tale. According to it, we have : — 1. Leaves penninerved. — These have a midrib, or primary nerve, brandling on each side. These branches, the secondary nerves, have to be considered in their position, as alternate or opposite, in their respective dis- tance, and especially in their angle of divergence, from the middle nerve and their direction toward the borders. Their branches are tertiary nerves, or veins, except when they join the secondary nerves, either immediately or by subdivisions, when they become nervilles or veinlets. When these veinlets are in right angle to the secondary or tertiary nerves, and pass across them, they are percurrent nerviUes; when they are curved, or broken, or connected with veinlets of the same order, they become ivjlected or broken nerviUes. According to the distribution of the nerves, the surface of the leaves is divided in are^s of different orders. Those which are limited on one side by the primary nerves, and fill the space between two secondary ones, are named areas of the first order. Those which are surrounded by secondary and ter- tiary veins are areas of the second order. When the veinlets divide in thinner branches, they surround areola, which may be subdivided by descriptions in areola or meshes of the second, third, fourth order, etc. Sometimes the primary areas are traversed, as in the leaves of Willows, by shorter secondary nerves, which soon divide into areolae or join by their branches the secondary nerves of tiie first order. These are generally named tertiary nerves, or shortened secondary, or pseudo-secondary nerves. The areas of the different orders are often clearly defined, as in the leaves of the Maple, for example ; but some- times they gradually become undiscernible by the thinning of the veinlets, and lose themselves in the netting. Li this case, the ultimate >'<■!« Ett riato X\n, Kif;. 15. Driandra nrongmarti,Ett., Foss. V\. voii HUr., ]). 55, pi. xix, fig.s. 1-26. Myriea Ilronijniurti?, hesq^., Auuual Report, 18715, p. 418. Luaf linear, i)iiiuately divided iuto sliort, slightly obtuse lobes; nervation obsolete; secondary veins craspedodrome. This fragment is still too incomplete for a satisfactory determination. The leaf is coriaceous, the details of nervation obsolete, and by its lobate borders it is intermediate in characters between the leaves described as Dri- andra Brongnarti, Ett. {loc. cit.), especially like fig. 20, and those of Myrica ophir, Uug. (El. v. Sotzka, p. 30, pi. vi, figs. 12-16). Habitat. — Elko, Nevada (Prof. E. D. Cope). myrica insigiiis, Lesqz. Plate LXV, Figs. 7, 8. ilyrica insignis, Lesqx., Auuual Report, 1874, p. 312. Leaves large, membrauaceous, narrowly oval or oblong, acuminate, narrowed to the base, piu- nately lobed ; lobes short, deltoid, acute, turned upward ; middle nerve thin ; secondary veins open, par- allel, alternately passing up to ihe poiut oi the lobes or to the base of the sinuses; areolation large, polygonal. The two fragments of this beautiful leaf sufficiently represent its char- acters. The size is about ten centimeters long, nearly four centimeters broad in the middle, where the lobes are equal, divided to about one-third of the space between the middle vein and the borders, the two upper pairs being much shorter and longer, and the terminal one sharply acuminate, two centi- meters long. As far as it can be seen at the base of fig. 7, the lower lobes are rapidly diminishing in size downward, and the lowest one is narrowed down- ward and slightly decurrent to the petiole. The nervation is perfectly dis- tinct; the secondary veins, on an open angle of divergence of about 60°, mostly parallel, are mixed, the principal ones passing up in a slight curve to the point of the lobes; the others, cpiite as thick, going up to the base of the sinuses, where they divide into two branches, curving ami anastomosing along each border, with fibrillaj, which, broken and branching in the middle of the areas, form large quadrate or irregularly polygonal areolae. This nervation has the true character of that of tiie Comptonia, ])ut no fossil species offers a point of comparison ibr this one. Habitat. — Florissant, Colorado (Dr. F. V. Hayden). 136 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIAEY FLORA. niyrica? Lessigii, Lesqx. Plate LXIV, Fig. 1. Myricaf Leaalgii, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 312. Leaf coriaceous, very largo, oblong iu outline, deeply pinnately lobed ; lobes opposite, ovate- lanceolate, taper-pointed, slightly broader iu (be lower part, at an open angle of divergence, separated to near the midrib, where they are joined in broad obtuse sinuses; middle nerve very broad ; secondary veins proportionally thick, mixed. If the leaf represented by the figured fragment does belong to the Comptonia, it is indeed of an enormous size, for the preserved part, which seems to be one-half of the leaf only, is twenty-two centimeters long, and the lobes, from the middle nerve to the top, measure more than nine centi- meters, showing the width of the leaves to be at least eighteen centimeters. The midrib is very thick; the secondary nerves are of two orders: those of the first are strong, ascend to the point of the lobes, and branch on each side; those of the second are narrower, and come out of the middle nerve also. They are either short, passing up to the base of the sinuses, there diverging on each side, and following the borders in festoons, anastomosing with fibrillse, or longer, traversing the large areas between the base of the secondary veins and the borders of the lobes, dissolving either in branches or fibrillse, in right angle, as in the former species, which it much resembles by the characters of the nervation. The ultimate areolation is formed, as represented in the middle of the lower lobe of the figure, by subdivision nearly in right angle of the primary areolae, in a very small quadrangular or polygonal reticulation. Though the characters of nervation are those of Comptonia, remarkably similar indeed to those of Myrica {Comptonia) Matheroniana, Sap. (fit., ii, 2, p. 93, pi. 5, fig. 7), beautifully represented in the enlarged figure (7 a), it is difficult to suppose a leaf of this genus as large as the one represented here. I have already explained what reasons induce me to describe it in this section. The celebrated author of the Etudes, quoted above, objects to this reference, and considers the fragment as part of a leaflet of some kind of Araliacea, like Aralia mulfifida. Sap. (fit., i, 1, p. 115, pi. xii, fig. 1), a leaf palmately divided nearly to the top of the petiole in nine-lobed leaflets, vary- ing from six to twelve centimeters long. The mode of division of these leaflets has indeed some likeness to that of our fragment, but the characters of nervation are somewhat different. I am unable to decide the question, from want of materials for comparison. The consistence of this leaf seems to have been hard, thick, and membranaceous at the same time, the nervation being clearly defined in black lines upon llx; brown color of Ihe specimen. I have latelv received, from Rev. A. Lakes and from Golden, a number DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— BETDLACEiE. 137 of specimens, mostly fragments of leaves, which represent a species inter- mediate, by its characters, the form, and the size, between this and the former. The nervation is of Ihe same type. These fragments show such an intimate relation between M. Lessigii and M. insignis that both appear necessarily referable to the same generic division. Habitat. — Coal Creek, Colorado, in clay overlying coal, reached by a shaft sixty feet deep {Gen. W. H. Lesdg). BETULACE^, BETULA, Linn. The distribution of this genus is limited at our epoch to the northern regions of Asia, Europe, and America, a few of its species ascending to the Arctic zone. Of the twenty-nine species described in the Prodromus of De Candolle, eight inhabit North America, four of them exclusively belonging to its flora. The numerous species of Betula described from the Tertiary of Europe, thirty-nine, are especially related to the present North American forms, as. are also the few recognized in our geological formations. The generic type appears to have originated in the Cretaceous period; for we have already two species described from tlie Dakota group formation: Betuliles dentlculata, Heer; Betula beatriciam, Lesqx. The genus is repre- sented also in the Eocene of Europe by three species, two of them in the flora of S^zane; by four in the Paleocene, and thirty in the Miocene. Of these, of course, a large number are uncertain, the specific determinations from leaves only being perhaps more unreliable for this genus than for any other. In this country, one leaf only has been found in the lignite of Golden, doubtfully referable to Betula gracilis, Ludw., which by itself is already of uncertain relation, the only leaf which represents it being related to Populus rather than to Betula. Therefore we do not have as yet any positive record of this genus in the North American Lower Eocene. It is present, however, at Evanston, or in Upper Eocene, by two species, one of them new; also at Fort Fetter- man, a Miocene formation, where some leaves of a new species have been found in connection with a profusion of remains of Taxodium miocenicum. Bctiiia Vogdesii, Lesqx. I'lato XVII, Figs. 18, 11). Beinla Vogdeaii, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 312. Leaves sm.all, thin, t.val, acnt(Oy point.-d, narrowed, and ronnded to the petiole, minutely serru- late, penninerve ; lateral veins parallel, opposite at or near the base, simple or the lowest ones sparingly branching, craspedodronie. These leaves vary in size from three to four centimeters long aiwl from 138 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. sixteen to twenty-five millimeters broad in the middle; their form is nearly oval, more enlarged, and rounded at the base, which seems to pass down abruptly from near the petiole as decurring to it; they are minutely apiculate and serrulate. The species is related by the nervation to B.dentkulafa, Goepp., (Schoss. Fl., p. 12, pi. iii, figs. 14, 15), a species considered by European authors as identical with B. caudata, Goepp. Habitat. — Fort Fetterman, Indian Territory {Lieut. Vogdes). Betula gracilis?, Ludw. Plate XVII, Fig. 20. Betula gracilis, Ludw., Pateont., viii, p. 99, pi. xxsii, fig. 4. — Lesqx., Aniiual Keport, 1873, p. 398. Leaf small, ovate, obtusely pointed, distantly serrate; middle nerve thick; secondary veins mixed, some of them passing up in a curve to the teeth, simple. The form of the leaf is ovate, apparently rounded at the base, which is destroyed; the secondary nerves, simple and curved in passing up to the borders, have the same character as in Ludwig's figure (loc. cit.), being, how- ever, less distinctly camptodrome, and more generally running to the point of the small distant obtuse teeth. The European species is already of doubt- ful reference as remarked above, and therefore this fragment of a leaf is still more uncertain in its determination. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado. Betula Ooeppcrti, Lesqz:. Plate XVII, Figs. 21-23. Betula caudatal, Goepp. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, p. 293. Leaves large, ovate, subcordato or rounded at the base, lanceolate-acuminate ; borders irregularly crenato-serrate ; secondary nerves half open, subcamptodrome, thin, joined by close nervilles in right angle. These leaves are referable to Goeppert's species by their form, their size, and their nervation; the acumen is also generally inclined on one side, as in the European species. But, as remarked from a number of specimens, with borders more distinctly preserved, they have the teeth of the borders of a different character, not turned out and spinulose, but inclined upward and rather obtuse, as seen in fig. 23 a, enlarged. The veins, whose angle of diver- gence is 30° to 40°, are obsolete toward the borders, appearing either to enter the points of the largest teeth, or to be effaced and lost in the areolation, which is obsolete. As seen in fig. 21, the lower veins are opposite. Habitat . Evanston, Wyoming, where Dr. A. C. Peak collected the first specimens. DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— BETDLACE^. 139 Bet II I :i Steve nsoni, Lesqz. Plato XVIII, Figs. 1-5. Setula Stevensoni, Lesqx., Annual Rejiort, 1871, p. 21)3; 1S7-J, pp. 38G,401. Leaves of medium size, ovate, tapering or rounded to an obtuse point, subcordate at tbe slightly unequal base, Kliort-petioled, serrulate; nervation craspedodrome. The leaves, varying in size from four to seven centimeters long and three to four centimeters broad, are ovate, round-pointed, serrate, with equal short teeth (fig. 3, enlarged); a half-round or subcordate base, and a short petiole; the secondary veins, six to eight pairs on each side, opposite, at or near the base, pass up to the borders nearly straight, scarcely branching under an angle of divergence of 40°, joined nearly at right angle by strong curved nervilles, interrupted by the veins. I found at Evanston, in connection with these leaves, a few bracts of cones of Bctula, one of them similar to that figured by Heer (Fl. Arct., pi. xxv, fig. 25), which the author refers to B. prisca. Another, with three short-pointed divisions, appeared of the same character as that of fig. 30 {loc. cit.), named Betula Forshnmmeri. One of them or perhaps both forms may belong to our species, whose leaves are abundant at the same locality. Habitat. — Evanston, Utah ; Carbon, Wyoming. ALNUS, Tournef. As seen in the supplement to the Cretaceous Flora of Nebraska, in Dr. llayden's xViinual Report for 1874, p. SSf), the two forms of leaves pre- viously referred in the Cretaceous Flora, p. 62, to Alnus and Alnites are considered by Saporta as ratlier referable to Hamcnnelis than to Alnus, and have been accordingly described in that supplement under the generic name of Hnmamelites. At the same time, another leaf of H. {Alnus) Kansaseanus, found in a better state of preservation, has been represented in pi. vii, fig. 4, of that same supplement. The reference indicated by the name of Hama- melites is, however, quite as uncertain as that to Alnus, the more so that it is not confirmed by paleontological records ; for, in the lowest Eocene of Point of Rocks, a species of Abms or Alnites has been discovered, while as yet no species of HamameUs has been found in the North American Tertiary flora, and none also in that of Greenland. The same can l)c said of the Tertiary flora of Europe, where one species only, doubtfully referable to 140 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. Hamamelis, is described in the Eocene Flora of Sdzane. Considering, then, tlie geological records in regard to the present distribution of species in the North American flora, it would be more rational to refer to Alnus those Cretaceous leaves, and to regard the origin of this genus as Cretaceous. The paleontologists of Europe have to the present time described twenty-nine species of Alnus, seven from the Lower Tertiary (Eocene and Oligocene), and twenty-two from the Miocene formations. We have as yet only five species referred to this genus, one from the Lower Eocene, and tour from the Miocene; of these, one is described by Dr. Newberry from the Fort Union group, and two have been found in the Miocene of CaHfornia and Oregon. This apparent diflference in the distribution of this genus is ascribable to our limited acquaintance with the North American Tertiary floras At the present time, fourteen species oi Alnus are known and scattered over the boreal hemisphere, except two inhabiting the mountains from South Mexico to Chili. Two species are predominant in Europe, one south along the Mediterranean shores from Italy to the Caucasus, another a northern one, which also goes eastward to Western Asia; two others are still found in Europe, more rarely, however, and none exclusively limited to that continent. North America has five species, two of which exclusively belong to its flora, one from the western slope, the other from the eastern slope only. This distril)ution is therefore in accordance with that indicated by the Tertiary flora of this confinent, while it is the contrary for Europe, which counts twenty-eiglit species in its Tertiary, and has none at our time exclusively pertaining to its flora. Alniis Kcfcrsteinii, Gopp. Plate XVIII, Figs. G-8; Plate LXIV, Fig. 11. Alnites Kefersteiuii, Giipp., Nov. Act. N. C, xviii, 1, p. 364, pi. xli, figs. 1-19. Alnus Kefersteiuii, Ung., Chlor. Prolog., p. 115, pi. xxxiii, figs. 1-4. — Hcor, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 37, pi. Ixxi, iigs. (i, 7. — LikUv., Paluiout., viii, p. 97, pi. xxxi, figs. 1-5, xxxii, figs. 1, 2. — Ett., Foss. Fl. V. Bil., p. 47, pi. xiv, figs. 17-20.— Heer, Fl. Foss. Arct., ii, p. 146, pi. xxv, figs. 4-9; Fl. Foss. Alask., p. 28, pi. iii, figs. 7, 8 ; Mioc. Bait. Flor., p. 67, pi. xix, figs. 1-13. — Lesqx., Annual Keport, 1871, p. 292; 1872, pp. 386, 401, 405. Leaves of medinni size, ovate, obtusely pointed or acuminate, rounded-subcordate at base, simply or doubly serrate ; lat(!ral nerves and their divisions craspedodrome. The leaves of tliis species are very variable, especially in the denticula- tion of the borders. The most common variety is that represented in pi. xviii, DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— BETULAL'E^. 141 figs. 6-8, with borders doubly serrate, the teeth Ijeiiig small and sometimes obsolete. This is the form recognized in the Miocene of Alaska, Greenland, and the more common in Eur()i)e. The base of the leaves is rounded- subcordate, the lower secondary nerves more or less branching The other variety, a fragment of which is represented in pi. Lxiv, fig. 11, has the borders either simply serrate or with a few irregular, large, more acute teeth ; all the teeth, however, being larger and more obtuse than in the former variety. The characters of the nervation are the same as seen in the figure ; the leaves are obtusely pointed, not acuminate. By its larger obtuse teeth, the leaf is more intimately related to Alnus nostratum, Ung., as described by Ludw. (Palseont., p. 98, pi. xxxi, fig. 8). But this last species has the leaves rounded at the top, and those of A. Kefersteinii, represented in Fl. Bait., loc. cit., especially fig. 9, agree entirely, in their form and the denticulation of the borders, with the fragment under consideration. Habitat. — Evanston, Wyoming; not rare The fragment represented on pi. lxiv, near Florissant, Souti) Park, Colorado (Z)r. F. V. Hayden). Nine miles southeast of Green River, "Wyoming {Win. Clehurn). A.lnite8 iiisequilatcralis, Lesqz. Plate LXII, Figs. 1-4. Alnites inocquilateralis, Lesqx., Annaal Report, 1874, p. 307. Leavej rather thin, apparently membranaceous, very variable in size and form, broadly oval, obtnse or obtusely acuminate, rounded to the short petiole, distantly crenato-serrate ; lateral nerves curving to the borders, either entering the teeth by their ends, or passing under them to follow the borders in simple festoons, joining the teeth by small branchlets. The leaves vary in size from four to eight centimeters long and from three to six broad, one of the sides measuring generally one-fourth in width more than the other. The irregularity in the number of the veins is corre- spondingly great; one of the leaves, the smallest (fig. 4), for example, having- six lateral veins on the left side, the lower much branched, while the other side has ten, all simple. There are a number of fragmentary specimens of the largest-sized leaves, like figs. 1 and 2, and these appear all related by their outlines and the nervation to Populus Lebrunii, Wat., a species which Saporta considers identical with his Alnus cardiojihylla, S(iz. Flor., p. 55, pi. iv, fig. 9, and pi. xv, fig. 8. This last figure especially is much like fig. 1 of our plate, merely diflfering by the form of the teeth, which, in the American species, are broader and more obtuse. In this also the nervation is more distinctly pennate, and the disposition of the veins to enter the teeth by their 142 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUltVEV— TEKTIAKY FLOKA. extremity is more marked. The inequilateral shape of the leaves aud the irregularity of nervation are not of frequent occurrence in the living species of Alnus; these characters are seen, however, in the leaves of a number of fossil species, like Alnus cychidum, Ung., A. sporadum, Saj)., A. cardiophylla, etc. Habitat. — Alkali Station, Wyoming {IVm. Clehurn). CUPULIFER^. OSTRYA, Michx. By their form and nervation, the leaves of this genus resemble those of Carpinus and Betula. The teeth of the borders are smaller than those of Carpinus, and they do not bear any secondary teeth upon their anterior face. As yet, we have no fossil remains referable to this genus in the North Ameri- can fossil floras. The capsule of the fruit, which is veined in its length and vesicular, is easily recognized, though the leaves may not be distinct from those of Carpinus. In the European Tertiary Flora, the genus Ostrya is represented by six species, one of them Eocene, another of doubtful refer- ence; the others all Miocene. The present flora has only two species, one eastern, in southern Europe, extending from France to the Lebanon Mount- ains; the other, O. Virginica, exclusively belongs to this continent, having also a wide range of distribution, or from New Brunswick to Lake Winnipeg, in 30° of longitude, and from 55° of latitude north to 20° in Mexico, where the species has been found near Jalapa, and still more south, in the mountains of Orizaba. It is, therefore, probable that one species, at least, of Ostrya may be found in the American Tertiary. CARPINUS, Linn. The geological distribution of this genus does not agree in Europe and in North America, as far as we know it, at least. While here two spe- cies only are known by their leaves, from specimens obtained in the Upper Miocene of the Parks, the paleontologists of Europe have described seventeen species from leaves, and eight from the fruits or from involucres. It is pro- bable, as Schimper supposes, that a number of these species will have to be eliminated by more careful researches. However, the predominance of this genus is marked in a high degree in Europe in com])arison to what it is here. The genus appears already in the Eocene of Sezanne by the leaves of two species; the others are Miocene; only one is referred to the Plio- DESC'KII'TION OF SPECIES— CUPULIFER^. 143 cene. Of the five living species of Carpinus, one is now found in luiropc, passing east into Asia, following about tlie same geographical distribution as Ostrya carpinifolia. One also, C. Americana, is exclusively limited to the North American continent, having apparently the same range as Ostiya Virginica, of which it is a constant associate. It ranges toward the north as far as Lake Superior, and its presence is recorded in Florida by Cliaj)man. Gray, in his Statistics of the Flora of the Northern States, places it in the list of the species which range through 15° to 19° of latitude. Carpinus g:i'andis, Ung. Plate XIX, Fis. 9; Plate LXIV, Figs. 8-10. Carpinus grandis, Ung., Sillog., iii, p. G7, pi. xxi, figs. 1-13; Icouogr., pi. xx, fig. 4. — Heer, FI. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 40, pi. ixxi, figs. 19 b, c, d, e, Ixxii, figs. 2-'M, Ixxiii, figs. 2-4 ; Fl. Foss. Arct., p. 103, pi. xlix, fig. 9; Fl. Fobs. Alask., p. 29, pi. ii, fig. 12, etc. — Lesqx., ADDual Keport, 1874, p. 313. Leaves oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, doubly serrate ; secondary nerves close, parallel, straight to the borders, simple or scarcely branching. The leaves vary in size, from three to ten centimeters long and from two to five centimeters broad: their nervation is sharply marked, for the second- ary veins at least, which, nearly always simple, parallel, close, pass straight to the borders in a more or less acute angle of divergence, according to the width of the leaves. These are mostly oblong and taper-pointed or acuminate; their base is generally round, or subtruncate. In fig. 9 of plate Ixiv, the base a})pears cuneate; but the leaf seems to have been lacerated on both sides. This, how- ever, if even the base of the leaf was wedge-shaped, could not separate it from the species, as some of the leaves figured by the authors are more or less acutely cuneate to the base. The nervilles are extremely thin and scarcely perceivable upon our specimens; fig. 9 of pi. xix has the lateral veins more distant, and the substance of the leaf is apparently of a thicker consistence, membranaceous or subcoriaceous. For this reason I considered this leaf at first as a Quercus, under the name of Q. Elkoana (Annual Report, 1873, p. 413). Heer, however {loc. cit.), has in fig. 24 a leaf with the veins nearly as distant; and the doubly serrate borders, with simple secondary veins, more evidently relate this fine fragment to this species, especially comparable to fig. 2 b, pi. Ixxiii, of Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv. Habitat. — Near Florissant, Colorado {Dr. F. V. Hayden). Elko Station, Nevada {Prof. E. D. Cope). 144 UiilTED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY— TERTIARY ELOEA. CORYLUS, Toum. This genus at our time is represented in the northern hemisphere only. Of the seven species by which it is now known, two inhabit eastern Asia; three are found in Europe, none being confined to that continent, however, for two extend to Asia and one to Algeria. Two belong exclusively to North Am- erica: Corylus Americana, wiiose range of distribution is from Florida to Saskatshawan, and C. rostrata, which does not go southward far beyond the Alleghany Mountains, and ascends only to the great lakes. In the fossil flora, three species only. are known by their leaves in the Miocene of Europe. One of them is nearly exclusively Arctic, its remains being found in great abundance in the Miocene of Greenland. It is, however, quite as common in the same formation of Alaska, and appears more rarely in the Miocene of the Rocky Mountains. The specimens figured as marked below are from Carbon and the Washakie group; some fragments, in a bad state of preserva- tion, and therefore somewhat uncertain, have been found at Evanston. Four species of Corylus are described from the Union group by Dr. Newberry. From the similarity of the leaves of C. Mac Quarrii with those of our present species, it appears certain that these had their origin in geological times as far up as the Miocene at least, and also that their present characters and their distribution agree with those of their ancestors. Corylus mac Quarrii, (Forbes) Heer. Plate XVm, Figs. 9-11. AlnitesT Mac Qitarrii, Forbes, Qn.irt. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1851, p. 103. Cwylui Mac Quarrii, Heer, Fl. Arct., p. 104, pi. viii, figs. 9-12, ix, figs. 1-8, xvii, fig. bd, lix, fig. 7o, p. 138, pi. xxi, fig. 11 c, xxii, figs. 1-6, xxiii, fig. 1, p. 149, pi. xxvi, figs. 1 a, 2-4, xxi, fig. 5 ; Fl. ' Foss. Alask., p. 29, pi. iii, fig. 9, pi. iv; Foss. Fl. of N. Greenl., p. 469, pi. xliv, fig. 11a, xlv, fig. 66; Spitzb. Fl.,p. 56, pi. xi.figs. 10-13, xiii, fig. 35 6.— Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, p. 292 ; Supplemeut, p. 9. AInu» pseudoglutinosa, Goepp., Tert. Fl. d. Polar Gcg., 1861. Corylus grosae-serrala, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 44, pi. Ixxiii, figs. 18, 19. Leaves of medium size, very variable, oblong or oval, pointed or acuminate, ronnded, truncate or omargiiiate at the base, triply serrate, penninerved ; lateral veins thick, branching, craspedodromo, like their divisions. The immense number of specimens, some of them in a p.3rfect state of preservation, which have been examined by Prof Heer, have enabled him to compare the various forms of these leaves, and to refer them to the same spe- cies. Seen separately in two or three fragmentary specimens, Hke those fig- ured here, it is difficult to find their points of identity, and therefore easy to refer each leaf to a diiferent species. The surface of these Corylus leaves is DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— CUPULIFER^. 145 always rough; the secondary veins and their divisions are traced deep into the derm, and the nervilles are also dccj) and distinct, thougli the details of areola- tion are rarely so. It is always ditficult, in our specimens at least, to recognize tlie triple denticulation of the borders, the teeth sometimes appearing siujple, and being generally more or less destroyed or erased. Habitat.— Carbon Station, Wyoming; Washakie group {Dr. F. V. Hat/den). I have not seen as yet any specimens of the species from the Upper Miocene of Green River and the Parks. Those from the Lower Lignitic are indistinct and scarcely determinable. FAGUS, Toumf. One of the more clearly defined generic types of the Cretaceous Dakota group flora is that of Fagus. Two species, described from leaves (they may, however, represent one only), have been published from this formation, Fagus polydada (Lesqx., Report of the U. S. Gcol. Surveys of the Territo- ries, vol. vi, p. G7, pi, v, fig. G) and F. crelacea (Newby., Notes on the Later Extinct Floras of N. A., p. 23). From this it seems that a genus whose origin is recognized in the Cretaceous, and which, by the wide distribution of one of its species at the present time through the eastern slope of the North American continent, furnishes one of the principal constituents of its forests, should have left its traces through the intermediate geological formation by an abundance of its fossil remains. As yet, it is not the case. No posi- tively determinable fossil leaves referable to Fagus have been observed in the Lower Lignitic of the Rocky Mountains, and none either in the higher stage of the Eocene at,Evanston or in the Miocene of Carbon. The speci&s described here below as Fagus FeronicB is from the Upper Tertiary (Miocene) of the Rocky Mountains, and even, as it may be seen from the remarks in the description, it is not certain that the leaves referred to it truly belong to this genus. We have to go higher still in the Tertiary formations, or in the Pliocene of the Chalk Bluffs of California, to find vegetable remains as distinctly identifiable with Beech as are those of the Cretaceous. This may seem a strange inconsistency of distribution. It may be accounted for, as in other analogous cases, by our insufficient acquaintance with the geological floras of this continent, represented as they still are by comparatively scanty materials. The proof is, that fruits of Fagus, perfectly similar to those of the living species, have been found in the Lower Lignitic of Tennessee and 10 T F 14G I" SITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. Mississippi, and described as Fagvs ferruginea, in the Geological Report of Tennessee, 1869, 11.427, pl.K, fig.ll. Prof. Heer also identifies two species of Fagus in the Miocene of Alaska, whose synchronism with the Lignitic dcpaluslris a 148 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. range of 6° only, while Q. rubra, Q. alba, and Q. obtusiloba have their place in the list of the species ranging from nineteen to twenty-nine degrees of latitude. The disposition of Oaks to constitute varieties by hybridity is well known. This has rendered the specification of many of their forms very difficult and uncertain. It is therefore not surprising to find the same uncer- tainty in regard to a number of the fossil forms referred to this genus, and which are identifiable by leaves only, the most variable and diversified organ- ism of all. Considering what is known of Oaks in geological times, species of Quercus are positively and distinctly represented in the Cretaceous; at least, if we admit as representatives of this genus the leaves of the Cretaceous of Belgium, which have been separated by Debey and d'Ettingshausen, under the generic name of Dryofhyllum, for reasons which have not been as yet satisfactorily explained. These- leaves have the same characters as certain species of Oaks; and, compared for their nervation, their form, even their consistence to those of some of the North American living species, they do not present any mentionable diflference. The fine leaf, for example, described in the Supplement to the Cretaceous Flora, Annual Report, 1874, as BryophyUum {Quercus) latifolium, p. 340, pi. vi, fig. 1, is like a counterpart of some leaves of Quercus bicolor; and that of Quercus primordialis of the Cretaceous Flora (Rep. U. S. Geol. Surv. of theTerr., vol. vi, p. 64, pi. v, fig. 7) is equally similar to leaves of Q. prinos. The section of the Willow-oaks, the Salicifolioe, established by Schimper for species with entire leaves, is less definitively recognized in the Cretaceous. Tlie characters of Quercus salicifolia and Q. cuneata, Newby., like those of Q. Ellsworthiana, Lesqx., do not exclusively pertain to Oaks; therefore the relation of the leaves representing these forms is somewhat doubtful. However, the evidence afforded to this question by geological records seems to prove the origin of at least two different types of Oaks in the Cretaceous ; for the Paleocene of France has five species, described by Watelet, and, besides those which are mentioned here below, five others have been recently observed by Saporta in the Gelinden formation, which, considered for a long time as Upper Cretaceous, is now "definitively recog- nized as the lowest member of the Eocene of that country. Three of these Oaks, according to the author's remarks, go to the section Lepklobalanus, the two others represent that of Cerris. Higher into the Tertiary, the DESCKirTION OF SPECIES— CUPULIFERiE. 149 European authors describe a few species fioin the Middle Eocene, and still a larger number from the upper measures, the Oligocene or Armissan. It is, liowever, in the Miocene that the genus reaches its full development; and, judg- ing from data obtained from the study of tin; North American Tertiary floras, the predominance of Oaks increases even into the Upper Miocene and the Pliocene, for, in fifty species which represent the flora of the Chalk Bhiffs of California, nine, or more than seventeen per ceut., belong to Quercus. This proportion, as far as it can be estimated, is far above tliat of the Oaks in the present North American flora; for, counting the arborescent, or woody hard species, which could be preserved by fossilization, in supposing analogous circumstances, the Oaks of the eastern slope of the United States would not constitute more than six per cent, of its flora. Prof W. P. Schimper, in his Pak^ontologie Vdgdtale, describes one hundred and sixty fossil species of Oaks, which he distributes in tive different sections : — In the first, that of the Salicifolia, he has forty-seven species, four of which are Cretaceous, twelve Eocene, and tliirty-one Miocene. Among the Eocene species, he places three described from Vancouver's Island. In the second section, which includes the si^ecies with serrate or dentate leaves, he has thirty-nine species, three of which are Cretaceous and five Eocene ; of these, three are North American. This disproportion in the distri- bution is rather uncertain, however, and explainable in part by the fact that the Eocene floras of Europe, that of Mount Bolca, for example, are still unknown, and also J)y the reason that some species referable to this section are described by Schimper under the generic name of Dryophyllum. Of these, the S(izanne flora (Lower Eocene) has four; that of Gelinden, a still lower formation, has five (these published since the Pal^ontologie Vc^gt'tale was out); and two more have been more recently discovered in the Point of Rocks measures of Wyoming, which, l)y its flora, characterizes the lowest Tertiary of this country. Schimper's third section has the species with coriaceous, few-nerved, or indistinctly nerved leaves, which are generally of difficult and uncertain determination. It contains thirty species, three Oligocene, one Quaternary, the other Miocene. Quercus aculiloha, a well-characterized Oligocene species of this section, has been found also at Golden in the Lower Lignitic of Colorado. 150 U>'ITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. The fourth section, for lobalo-crenate leaves and craspedoclrome secondary veins, has only fonr species, which, I think, should l)e placed in the second division ; for Quercvs castanea and Q. furcinervis are evidently derivations of Dryophyllum, or referable to the same section ; while Q. ehpnodrys and Q. Deuterogeva, two species of Unger, are comparal)le to Q. prinoides and Q. montana, a type of the North American flora, which, as seen above, appears also derived from Dryophyllum. To the fifth section pertain the species with sinuate-lobed borders, like those of our White Oaks. It has only twelve species, all Miocene, especially Upper Miocene. As yet, this type is recognized in the Tertiary flora of this continent by one species only from the Pliocene of California. However, Q. Furuhjelmi, Heer, from Alaska, is placed by Schimper in this section, and as this species is closely allied on one side to the Cretaceous Dryophyllum (Quercus) latifolimn, on the other to the present Q. hicolor, we may, without a too hazardous hypothesis, consider this group as identical with the former, the leaves passing, by the deepening of the obtuse teeth into lobes, to Q.. alba, Q. ?nacrocarpa, etc., and, by narrowing them into more acute teeth, to Q.prinos, or to the fossil species Q. pseudo-cast anea, Q. furcinervis, etc. The last section of Schimper is reserved for the doubtful species, twenty- four in number, two of them known only by fruits. From this it may be assumed that the different groups of Oaks of the North American present flora, at least those of the eastern slope, have their origin recorded in the Cretaceous by some related specific types; that the original characters, those pertaining to the fourth section, are recognized in species of the Eocene of the Rocky Mountains; and that perhaps even the genus takes its preponderance in North America, as in Europe, during the Miocene period, especially in this country in the Pliocene. § I. — Leaves with entire borders. Quercus neriifolia, Al. Br. Plate XIX, Figs. 4,5. QuercM neriifolia, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 45, pi. Ixxiv, figs. 1-6, 16 a, b, c, d (acorns), pi. Ixxv, fig. 2; iii, p. 178, pi. clii, fig. a.— Ung., Gen. et Sp., p. 403.— Ett., Foss. Fl. v. Bil., p. 54.— Gaud., Cont., vi, p. 12, pi. ii, fig. 1. — Lesqx., Annu.il Report, 1873, p. 413. Qucreus Jignitum, Al. Br., Stizenb. Verz., p. 77. — Heer, Ueber iler Tert. Fl., p. 53. Quercus commutata, Heer, Fl. Tort. Helv.. pp. 14,21. Leaves coriaceous, with polished surface, narrowly lanceolate, gradually tapiriug toward the base; middle nerve thick and deep; secondary veins on a very open angle of divergence, sparingly branching toward the borders, where they are effaced ; generally separated by shorter intermediate tertiary veins. DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— CUPDLIFER^. 151 The two specimens referred 1o this species are very imperfect. One (fig. 5), with coriaceous texture, smoolh surface, gradually narrowed down- ward, has, however, the characters of this species, especially as marked by Heer {Joe. cit., figs. 3, 4). The secondary veins are close, open, on an angle of divergence of 60°, with shorter intermediate tertiary veins. The fragment represented in fig. 4 is less distinctly identified with this species by the coria- ceous substance of the leaf, its open veins nearly at right angle to the thick midrib, toward the base, and more evidently branching near the border. Habitat. — Near Florissant, west of Pike's Peak, Colorado {Dr. A. C. Peak), specimen represented in fig. 4. Raton Mountains, New Mexico {Dr. F. V. Haijden), specimen represented in fig. 5. Querciis straiuinea, Lesqz. riate XIX, Figs. 6,7. Qutrcim siraminea, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1872, ]>. ,373. Leaves variable in size, broadly ovate, obtusely pointed, ronnded downward, or narrowed to a short petiole; secondary veins parallel, on an open angle of divergence, camptodrome. These leaves seem to represent two different species. They have, how- ever, a common character, that of the yellowish, shining, secondary veins, which I have not seen on any other species of fossil plants of this locality. The leaf in fig. 6 is smaller, with the secondary veins at a more acute angle of divergence; it has, however, the same character of nervation, shorter intermediate tertiary veins, and more or less distinct veinlets, oblique to the secondary veins. In both leaves, also, tlie basilar veins are marginal, and ascend to the branches of the secondary nerves above. This species is dis- tantly related by its nervation to Quercus Des/ocsi, Heer (Fl. Tert. Helv.), as represented in pi. Ixxviii, fig. 7, a species which shows in different fragments (figs. 6 and 14) a marked diversity in the size of the leaves and in the angle of divergence of the secondary veins. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado. Quercus ciilorophylla, Ung. Plate XXI, Fig. 3. Quercus thlorophylla, Ung., Cblor. Protog., p. Ill, pi. xxxi, lig. 1.— Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 47, pi. Ixxv, figs. 3-9.— Massal., Fl. Foss. Senog., pi. xxx, fig. 4.— Sism., Mater., p. 41, pi. ix, fig. 5.— Lesqx., Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc, xiii, p. 41t), pi. xvii, figs. 5-7; Annual Report, 1869, p. 196; Supplement to Annual Report, 1871, p. 14; Annual Report, 1872, pp. 383, 407. Leaves coriaceous, ovate, obtuse, rounded in narrowing to a short petiole; borders entire, undu- late, apparently recurved; secondary veins thin, obsolete, camptodrome. Though a number of fragments referable to this species have been found, none represent a full leaf, and the more complete specimen is here figured. 152 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. Generally the leaves are more distinctly narrowed to the short petiole than in this one; hut even in the European specimens, as for example in the fine branch figured by Sismonda {loc. cit.), this character is remarked quite as frequently as that of the more acutely cuneate base. The differences are especially appreciable in the three leaves from the Mississippi Lower Lig- nitic, in Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc, loc. cit., where fig. 5 has its base still more obtusely rounded than in Ihe leaf figured here; while fig. 7 has its lower part more narrowed, as it is in tlie leavQg described by Heer, and fig. 6 is inter- mediate between both. In all the fragments which have come under my examination, the substance of the leaves appears coriaceous; the secondary veins are scarcely perceivable and the borders seem narrowly reflexed. The leaves do not vary greatly in size, averaging eight centimeters long and three to four centimeters broad, being always, as seen in the figures given by the authors cited, either obtuse or rounded, or even slightly emarginate at the point. Habitat. — Marshall's, Erie, Colorado. Fischer Peak of the Raton Mountains, New Mexico (Dr. F. V. Hayden). Six miles above Spring Canon, near Fort Ellis, Montana (Dr. A. C. Peak). The specimen from this last locality is obscure. Qnerciis ciiiereoides, ep.. nov. Plate XXI, Fig. 6. Leaf small, subcoriaceous, entire, narrowly ovate-lauceolate, acuminate, rounded to the petiole ; middle nerve narrow; secondary veins curving toward the borders, camptodrome. This fine leaf, nearly five centimeters long, two centimeters broad in the middle, its widest part, is narrowed by a curve- to the base, and seems to be short-petioled (petiole broken). The secondary veins at unequal distance, but parallel, join the narrow middle nerve under an angle of divergence of 40°, first nearly straight, then curving near and along the borders, or campto- drome; the areas are all primary ones and undivided except by nervilles, which, at right angle to the middle and secondary nerves, branch nearly in the same direction, and form irregularly square or rectangular areolae. The relation of this species is marked with the North American Quercus cinerea, Michx., of the pine-barrens of the South, or to Quercus jthellos, \ar. maritima, for its nervation at least. Among the fossil species, it is especially comparable to Quercus salici7ia, Sap. (lilt., i, p. 24, pi. vi, fig. 6), of the Gypses of Aix, France. Habitat. — LocaUty unknown. DESCllIPTION OF SPECIES— CUPULIFEK^. 153 ^ II. — Leaves serrate, dentate, or crenate. Quel- ens Valdeiisis, Heer. Plate XIX, Fig. 8. Querent Valdensis, Heer, VI. Tcrt. Helv., ii, p. 49, pi. Ixxviii, fig. 15; iii, p. 178, pi. cli, fig. 17.— Ett., Fo88. Fl. V. Bil., p. 56, pi. xvi, figs. 5, C, 7. Leaves eoriaceous, ovate, acuminate, rounded to the petiole ; secondary veins close, parallel, more open toward the base, subcamptodronie ; borders obscurely dentate. This fragment, representing llie lower part of a coriaceous leaf, whose base is rounded to a slender, short petiole, has rather the appearance of a leaf of Betula, or of Ostrya, than of a Querats. It resembles closely, how- ever, the fragment described by Heer {loc. cit., fig. 15) by its coriaceous consistence, its form, and nervation. The .sharp denticulation of the teeth is not distinct in this specimen. I have seen another, from Contra Costa, California, which is more perfect, representing a whole leaf, acuminate and sharply dentate, with the same type of nervation as this one, and evidently referable to the same species. The secondary veins are subcamptodrome, either following along the borders in festoons and entering the teeth by nervilles, or some of them passing up to the point of the teeth, as marked by d'Ettingshausen {loc. cit., fig. 7). This species is evidently extremely variable; for the leaves seen by this last author are obtuse, some of them round-oval; in all, however, the secondary veins are more open toward the base, and the nervilles distinct, nearly simple, and continuous in right angle to the veins. Habitat. — Lignites of Rock Creek, Laramie Plains, Wyoming, -with Quercus acroclon, Populus subrotundata, etc. {Dr. F. V. Hnyden). Qiicrciis Godctil, Heer. Plate XX, Fig. 1. Quereut Godeii, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 50, pi. Ixxviii, figs. 10, Jl ; iii, p. 179, pi. cli, fig. 11.— Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, p. 297. Leaf snbcoriaceous, lanceolate, tapering upward, rounded to the base; borders serrato-dentate; secondary nerves numerous, parallel, branching near the borders, camptodromo, separated by tertiary shorter veins. Of the two specimens which we have of this species, the best preserved one is figured here. The leaves appear coriaceous, or, at least, subcoriaceous, their surface being blackened by an adhering thin coating of coaly matter and undulately wrinkled across, as in coriaceous leaves ; the stone is, however, too coarse to show the thickness of the vegetable remains imbedded into it. These leaves are unequal at the base, more enlarged and rounded on one 154 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. siilo, and tapering to a jniint (?) (broken). The only difference remarked between this leaf and the one fignred by Hecr {loc. cit., pi. li, fig. 11), is in the size of the teeth, which are shorter in the American form ; they are, however, sharply i)ointed and unequal. The secondary veins are exactly of the same character as in Heer's species, branching toward the borders, camp- todrome, with intermediate, short, tertiary veins, sometimes on a more open angle of divergence. These leaves, even if their identification with the Mio- cene species of Europe were positively ascertained, do not seem to be refer- able to Oaks. By their small, sharp teeth, their unequal base, their nervation also, they closely resemble the leaflets of some compound leaves, like those of some Aralia, our A. sjnnosa for example, wliich, however, are not thick. Habitat. — Six miles above Spring Canon, Montana, with Cinna?fiomum lanceolatum, Rhamnus rectinei'vis, etc. {Dr. F. V. Hat/den). Q ti e r c II s C I e b u r ii i , Lesqz. Plate XX, Fig. 2. Quercua Clebnrni, Lesqx., Annual Report, \fi73, p. 399. Leaf coriaceous, linear-oblong, narrowed to the base, obtusely dentate; secondary veins sbort and obsolete, nearly at right angle to the midrib. The upper part of the only leaf which represents this species being destroyed and the nervation obsolete, its characters are indefinite. Its pecu- liar form and nervation, however, and the flat, slightly obtuse teeth of the bor- ders, even the unequilateral base, are characters identical with those of Quercus urophylla, Ung. (Fl. v. Sotzka, p. 33, pi. ix, fig. 9). As in our species, also, the lateral veins arc in right angle to the midrib. From the numerous figures given of that Quercns by the German author, the leaves are seen to be extremely variable, especially in the characters of the denticulation of the borders and the direction of tlie secondary veins. Habitat. — Black Buttes, Wyoming. Quercus? f raxinif olia, Lesqz. Plate XX, Fig. 3. Qito'cus Laharpi, Gaud. — Lcs(jx., Annual Report, 1871, p. 297. Leaves membranaceous, lanceolate, rounded and narrowed to the entire base, tapering to the obtusely dentate point; secondary veins close, numerous, cuiving in passing up to the borders, cauipto- dronie. This leaf, known only from one specimen, is about eight centimeters long, two centimeters broad in its lower part, entire from the base to near the DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— GUPDLIFEK.^. 155 middle, obtusely dentate above, witli mimeroiis parallel, camptodronie, sec- ondary veins, diverging about 40°, slightly more open in tlie lower part of" the leaf. The reference to Quercus Lahnrpi is contradicted by the total absence of nervilles, the more numerous, closer, secondary veins, and the curve of the borders of the leaf to the base, or to the petiole. It resembles some species of Fraxinus, like F. denticulata, Heer (I\rioc. Bait. FL, p. 89, pi. xxiv, figs. 2fi and 27). The absence of the details of nervation |)revents a satis- factory comparison and identification of this leaf". Habitat. — Six miles above Spring Canon, Montana {Dr. F. V. Hayden). Quercus Ellisiana, Lesqx. Plate XX, Figs. 4, 5, 7, 8. Quercus EUisiana, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, p. 297. Leaves broadly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, obtusely pointed, obtusely dentate in the upper part, broadly cuneate to a short petiole ; secondary veins at au open angle of divergence, slightly curving in passing to the borders and entering the teeth. All the leaves of this locality are ujion coarse metamorphic sandstone, which the vegetable substance seems to have penetrated, and upon which the outlines and the essential parts of the nervation are preserved as painted in black. For this reason, the original consistence of the leaves is inappreciable. These leaves are numerous, variable in shape, broadly rhomboidal, and entire, or with undulate borders, as in fig. 7 ; or ovate and broadly wedge-form toward the point and the base, and distinctly obtusely dentate in the upper j)art, as in fig. 4; or oval, undulate, or dentate above, as in figs 5 and 8. The nervation is variable in the same degree, the secondary veins being either forking, distant, open (angle of divergence 40° to 50°), as in figs. 4 and 7, or more numerous, closer, simple, and more oblique, as in fig. 5. A number of fragmentary specimens unite all these forms in one species by transition between their characters. Their general outline is that of leaves of Alnus, a genus to which they might be referable ; but the narrow lanceo- late leaves, like that of fig. 5, rather resemble Qmicns leaves, at least some of those described as Quercus by European authors. Thus this species is closely allied to Quercus 'pseudo-alnus, Ett. (Foss. Fl. v. Bil., p. ,59, pi. xvii, figs. 3-6), merely differing by the character of the denticulation, which is gen- erally more obtuse in the American form, and does not descend so far down. Habitat. — Six miles above Spring Canon, near Fort Ellis, Montana {Dr. F. V. Hayden). 156 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. Quo re (IS Pralei, Lesqx. Plate XX, Fig. 6. Quercus Pealei, Lesqs., Anuual Report, 1871, p. 297; 1872, p. 406. Leaf coriaceous, small, cuneate, and entire from the middle to the base (petiole broken), more abruptly narrowed to an obtuse point, and undulato-dentate in the upper part ; lower pair of secondary veins from the base of the leaf, opposite, at a more acute angle of divergence, and camptodrome ; upper pair alternate, distant, sparingly branching, craspedodrome. This small leaf, four centimeters long and two centimeters broad in the middle, may be referable to the former species. The character of the nervation appears at first very different; but, comparing fig. 4 to fig. 6 of the same plate, the analogy in the position and direction of the secondary veins becomes more evident, for in fig. 6, as indicated by the festoons of the tertiary veins or branches along the borders above the broken part, the leaf has, like that of fig. 4, a marginal vein, whose place is taken on the other side by a camptodrome secondary vein. The more marked differ- ence which induced me to separate this species is the more evidently coriaceous substance of this leaf and the discernible nervilles. It appears intimately related to Quercus fagifoUa and Q. triangularis, Goepp, (Schoss. Tert. Fl.,pp. 14 and 15, pi. vi, figs. 9-17), — two species described by Schimper as Farrotia fagifolia. Habitat. — Six miles above Spring Canon, Montana {Dr. A. C. Peale). Near Fort Ellis, Montana (Jos. Savage). Quercus Haidin$feri, Ett Plate XX, Figs. 9, 10. Quercus Eaidingeri, Ett., Fobs. F1. v. Vien., p. 12, pi. ii, fig. 1.— Heer, FI. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 53, pi. Ixsvi, figs. 5, 7, 8, 10, 14. — Gaud., Contr., ii, p. 42, pi. iii, fig. 6. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p, 313, Leaves subcoriaceous, broadly lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed to the base; borders creuulato- serrate; lateral nerves uuequidistant, sparingly branching, effaced toward the borders, camptodrome. The American leaves representing this species are slightly larger than those of the European Tertiary, especially that of our fig. 10. They agree, however, so well by all their characters with those described under this name, that I consider the identity as undeniable. The size is from ten to fourteen centimeters long, and three and a half to five centimeters broad below the middle. The largest leaf in Heer (loc. cit., fig. 4) is as long as that of our fig. 9, and slightly narrower. Tlie narrowly ovate-oblong shape of the leaves, tapering upward to an acumen and slightly more rapidly narrowed in curving to the base, the crenulate or dentate borders, are the same, and the inequi- distant secondary nerves, some of them simple, some sparingly branching, DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— CUPULIFEB^. 157 with tertiary intermediate veins, arc also of the same character as seen in Heer (Joe. cit., figs. 7 and 14). This species is related by some of its characters to the two former ones. As Heer and d'Ettingshausen, also, have found and described the fruits of this species, its relation to this genus seems sufficiently established. Habitat. — Green River, Wyoming, with Ficus arenacea, F. Gmidini, Populus arctica, etc., described hereafter 'Dr. F. V. Haydcn). Qiicrciis drymcja, Ung. Plate XIX, Fig. 14. Quo-cms drijmfja, Ung., Chlor. Protojg., p. 113, pi. xsxii, figs. 1-4. — Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. CO, pi. Ixxv, figs. IS, 19, 20.— Ung., Fosa. F). v. Sotzka, p. 33, pi. ix, figs. 1, 2.— Gaud., Contr., i, p. 17, pi. vi, fig. 4; vii, lig. 4; ii, p. 44, pi. iv, figs. 1-10. — Ett., Foss. Fl. v. Bil., i, p. 58, pi. xvi, lig. 9. — Maesal., Stud., i>. 18l>, pi. xsiv, fig. 7. — Sism., Mater., p. 40, pi. xvii, fig. 1, etc. Leaf linear, apparently acuminate; borders equally distantly dentate; lateral veins in an acute angle of divergence, nearly straight to the borders, craspudodrome. There is perhaps no sufficient evidence of the reference to this species of the fragment figured here. It has the t()rm and size of the leaf of Un- ger's Fl. v. Sotzka (Joe. eit.), fig. 2; the nervation is of the same character, the secondary veins passing up in an acute angle of divergence and nearly straight to the point of the teeth, and also the subfalcate shape of the linear-lanceolate leaf is similar. In fig. 9 of the Bil. Fl. {loe. eit.), the linear leaf, the angle of divergence, 30°, of the veins, and the distant teeth, are of the same character also; and, indeed, I do not know any other species, eilher fossil or living, to which this fragment might be more legitimately referred. The ditference in the form of the teeth, either very acute or somewhat obtuse, is remarked also upon the fragment, as well as npon the leaves figured by European authors. Habitat. — Near Castello's Ranch, Colorado (^Dr. F. V. Hayden). Q u c I' c II s II a y d e II I ■ , Lesqz. Plato XIX, Fig. 10. Qutrciia Haydenii, Lcsqx., Annual Report, 18G9, p. 190. Leaf lyrate, sharply dentate toward the enlarged base and at the abruptly narrowed point; nervation palmato-pinnato ; lower lateral veins branching, open, the upper one distant, parallel, all craspedodronie. This leaf has no relation to any fossil ones known to me. Its general outline is somewhat like that of the leaves of Liriockndron. Enlarged at the nearly truncate base, and there round-lobed, with dentate borders, it is narrowed or strangled in the middle, and still enlarged upward, with its top broadly deltoid and sharply dentate. The middle part of the leaf only has entire 158 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. borders. The nervation is as irregular as the form, being tripalmate at the base, with the lateral veins, one only and branching on one side, while on the other they are double and parallel, with three pairs of secondary veins above, at a distance from the primary nerves; a nervation related to that of Plata- nus. Indeed, by its sharp teeth, turned upward, this peculiar leaf might be taken for a deformity of the common F. aceroides or P. Guillelma, but for its remarkable shape. As it comes from the same locality as the specimens of the following and apparently very variable species, it may belong to it. This possible relation indicates its place in this genus. It seems to represent a transitional form between the dentate and the lobate leaves of Quercus. Habitat. — Laramie Plains, near Rock Creek, Wyoming {Dr. F. V. Hay den). li y 1 1 u lit ( Q u c i- c ii s ) c r «! ii a t u in , Lesqx. Plate LXII, Figs. 10 and 11. Dryophi/llum crenatum, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 301. Leaf subcoriaceous, oblong-lanceolate, obliquely truncate to the base; borders deeply, regularly undulate or broadly crenate-dentate ; lateral veins thick, snbcauiptodrome ; nervilles thick in right angle to the nerves. The substance of these leaves is somewhat thick, and their surface coarsely marked by the nervation. As far as can be seen from the two frag- ments obtained, the leaves are of medium size, linear-oblong, either equally undulate on the borders or dentate, with obtuse, broad, short teeth. The secondary veins are thick, flat, entering the teeth or reaching the borders by their ends, while a fork under the teeth or quite near the borders follows them as a camptodrome division, anastomosing with the nervilles. The sub- division of these in the middle of the areas is mostly in right angle, forming ultimately small square or indistinctly polygonal meshes. The midrib is flat and broad. The relation of this leaf is evidently to the Cretaceous D. lati- foliuni, Lesqx. (Annual Report, 1874, p. 340, pi. vi, fig. 1). Habitat. — Point of Rocks, Wyoming {Dr. F. V. Hayden). DESCltlPTKJN OF SPECIES— CUPULIFElt^.. 163 D I* y o i> li y 1 1 u III ( <| ii c i* c ii s ) sub Ta I c a t u m , Lesqz. Plato LXIIl, Fit;. 10. Dryophyllmn suhfalcatum, Lcsqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. ;!01. Leal" subcoriaceouH, liiirai-lanceolato, narrowly taporpointed ; borders regularly serrate, with short blunt teeth turned upward; lateral veins very oblique, close, parallel, straight to the point of the teeth. We have only a fragmentary specimen of this species, the upper half of a leaf, which, by its form and nervation, seems at first referable to tlie genus Castanea or to some variety of the Cliestnut-oaks. The nervation is of the same character as in the former species, however, the upper branch of the secondary veins passing from near the point of the vcmiis under the sinuses and closely following the borders, anastomosing with the tibrilla). These arc very close, percurrent, mostly simple, and rarely branching, distinct, though thin. This species is intimately related to Dryoplujllum Dexvalquei, Sap. and Mer. (Flore de Gelinden), especially to the fragment represented on pi. iii, fig. 2, differing merely by the shorter, less acute teeth of the borders, the slightly flilcate form of the leaf, and the close, thin fibrillae. Habitat. — Point of Rocks, Wyoming (il/r. Wm. Clcburn).* CASTANEA, Tournf. The difficulty of discerning the fi)ssil leaves of this genus from those of Dryophyllum or Quercus renders uncertain the epoch to which its origin is referable. One fossil species has been described by Dunker as Castanea Hausmanni, from the Cretaceous Quadersandstein of Blankenburg, Ilartz, where it is found with leaves of Credeneria. On this species, however, Schimper observes . that it indeed resembles the leaves of C. vcsca, the living species so widely distributed in Europe and North America, l)ut that it could just as well be- long to Dryopliyllum. From the Eocene of France, one species is described by Watelet, another is from the Lower Miocene of Southern Europe, and four are distributed in higher stages of the same formation. In this country, leaves of one or perhaps two species of this genus are abundant in the Mio- cene of Oregon. The fragment published here, and apparently identical with *To this section of Oaks is referable Qua-cns fiirdiinrrie, Kossm., described in Annual Report, 1873, p. 398, from very fine speeinieiis of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and of the Spanish Mountains of California. The specimens belong to the Geological Survey of this last State, and are figured for its Report. 1G4 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. one of the Oregon species, is from the Upper Miocene of the Parks of Col- orado. It is probable that if the fossil leaves of this kind were known from suffi- cient specimens, the number of the species would be reduced; for the j)resent flora has only two species: one, C. vulgaris. Lam., or C. vesca, is represented by a number of marked varieties, often described as species, and distributed over the whole temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, especially along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, Western Asia, North Africa, and also in China, Japan, and the United States; the other, C. pumila, exclu- sively belongs to North America. Castanea int e r media, Leaqx. Plate XXI, Fig. 7. Castanea intermedia, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 313. Leaf snbcoriaceous, long, narrow, linear-lanceolate, gradually narrowed downward; borders equally sharply serr.ate ; secondary veins slightly curving, open, close, parallel, simple, and craspe- dodrome. The fragment represents a leaf, long indeed comparatively to its width, which is not much above two centimeters; while it appears to have been more than twelve centimeters in length. The borders are sharply serrate, the teeth turned upward, thorny-pointed, equal, and each entered by second- ary veins, which are simple, close, about four millimeters apart, diverging from the thick midrib at an angle of 50° to 60°. Every trace of areolation is erased. Comparing this leaf to the other fossil species published, it differs from all, being only related by its nervation to Castanea Ungeri, Heer (Fl. Foss. Alask., p. 32, pi. vii, fig. 1), and even in our species the lateral veins are still more numerous and more open. It has a more evident likeness to the leaves of our present Castanea pumila, from which it would be undistin- guishable, but for its linear form and the gradually tapering base. The simple nervation, the degree of divergence of the veins, the form and sharp- ness of the teeth, are all alike. The common C. vesca of the North has longer leaves, more distant veins; but these leaves, at least when young, and especially those of the bushy shoots, are gradually narrowed to the petiole, and linear-lanceolate, like the fossil one. This therefore appears interme- diate between both living species of North America. Habitat. — Middle Park, Colorado {Dr. F. V. Hayden). DESCKIPTION OF SrECIES— SALICINE^. 165 SALICINEJE. SALIX, Liim. Together with their narrowly lanceolate form, which they have in common with many other plants, the leaves of Willows are recognized by the following characters: — The middle nerve is strong, continued below the base of the leaves into a short petiole ; the secondary veins are numerous, close, parallel, generally at an open angle of divergence at or near their point of union to the midrib, more oblique in coming near to the borders, where they unite in continuous festoons by their curved points. These lateral veins are generally intermixed with shorter tertiary ones, whose angle of divergence is often different, and which, branching in the middle of the primary areas, form, by subdivisions in right angle, first, large rectangular areolae, and then, by multiple nervilles, a net of very small irregular meshes. As said above, the form of these leaves is more generally narrowly lanceolate, more or less rapidly narrowed or rounded to the petiole, but sometimes also broadly ellip- tical or oblong-ovate, even ovate-subcordate. The borders of the leaves are entire or simply crenate, dentate, or serrate. The origin of the genus seems legitimately referable to the Cretaceous period. In vol. vi of the Reports of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, p. 60, pi. v, figs. 1-4, four leaves from the Dakota Group of Ne- ltraskaare., Palaeont., vol. ii (Separ. Abdr.), p. 63, pi. ii, fig. 10. — Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ji, p. ;il, pi. Ixix, figs. 15, 16.— Lesqx., Auiiual Keport, 1872, p. 372. Salix longisaima, W< as. & Web., Palaeont , iv (Separ. Ab havo six others, positively referable to this formation, one of wliirli is from Vancouver, Iwo are common to the Mississippi and tlie Colorado Lii,niitic, and two have been obtained from the lowest Tertiary strata of Point of Rocks, which immediately rest upon the Cretaceous, and whose flora still preserves a few representatives of Cretaceous types. In the Miocene of Europe, how- ever, the genus takes a large predominance, twenty- eight species being there described from this fwmation. To the present time, we have only ten ; but considering the number of Tertiary species known from both continents, this indicates about the same pro])ortion in the geological (iistril)uti()n. Seven of the American Miocene species arc common with Europe; and, of these, three are also found in Alaska They represent especially the Middle Miocene, predominant in Oregon, and on the eastern side of the liocky Mountains, especially at Carbon, a division from which comparatively few materials have been obtained until now. As remarked in the descriptions of the species, the relation of some of them to types of the present flora of this country is distinctly recognized. § I. — MarginatcR. Pop II I IIS lat ior, Al. Br., var. cordif olia. Plate XXII, Fig. 8. Populus latior cordif olia, Heer, FI. Tert. Helv., p. 12, pi. Iv.— Ludw., Falajont., viii, p. 91, pi. xxvi, fig. 7. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, pp. 287, 289. Leaves nearly round, broadei than long, sbort-JSointed, subtruncate at base, wavy-margined; primary veins three, camptodromf. The form of this leaf and the characters of the borders arc referable to those described by Heer, and the nervation, somewhat abnormal by the absence of one of the primary nerves joining the midrib a little above the border base, is comparable to that of the leaf figured by Ludwig. The upper j)art of the leaf is destroyed. But another specimen, whose nervation is not quite as distinct, described in the same Report, p. 287, as Populus latior var. transversa, Heer, represents a smaller, short-pointed leaf, with more deeply marked undulations of the borders, which is apparently referable to the same variety. Habitat. — Washakie Station, Wyoming {Dr. F. V. Hayden). DESCKIPTION OF SPECIES— SALICINE^. 173 P o p u I II s »> II b r o t II n d n t :i < Lesqx Plate XXIV, Figs. n-8. PopuJua suhrotmda, Leeqx., Aiiiiiial Report, 1807, p. 196 — Sclip., Pal. Y6g6t., ii, p. 680. Populus attenuata, Al. Br., Lfsqx., Annual Report, 1872, pp. 'JHG, 3s9, 39a. Loaves long-petioled, nearly round, as broad as long, Bubtruncate at the base, abruptly pointed, acutely dentate; nervation tripalmate, canii)todrouie. The first of these leaves (fig. 8) was considered as representing u new species, distinct from P. attenuata, hS.. Br., especially by the sharp, turned-up teeth of the borders and the more abruptly narrowed or truncate base. It has, however, a great likeness to the figure given of this last species in Heer (Fl. Tert. Helv., pi. Iviii, fig. 1). The examination of other specimens from Carbon, though more fragmentary, confirms the first opinion in regard to the specific difference. The primary lateral veins separate from the midrib a little above the base, being much branched underneath and comparatively thick ; the secondary ones are somewhat higher up, mostly simjjle, and the areas are cut by nervilles in right angle to the veins. These characters are identical with those of P. attenuata; but the round shape of these leaves is different and the teeth always more acute than in the European species. This form is related to the North American Populus monilifera, Ait. HABiTAT.-^Rock Creek, Laramie Plains, Wyoming {Dr. F. V. Hayden); Cai-bon, Wyoming, where it is not rare, and found in both the beds of shale above and below the main coal. The specimen in fig. 7 is from Evanston, Wyoming, procured by Dr. Hayden Populus in elan aria, Heer Plate LXIV, Fig. 5. Populus melanaria, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 16, pi. liv, fig. 7 ; Ivii, fig. 1.— Lcsqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 302. Leaves with a long, slender petiole, broadly deltoid or subtrnncato at the base ; borders acutely serrate; primary lateral nerves emerging from a distance above the base of the leaves, with a pair of marginal veinlets underneath. This leaf, considering what can be seen of it by the fragment, which represents merely its lower half with the long slender petiole, the distinct nervation, and a few of the border teeth, exhibits characters in accordance with those described above, and translated from Schimper's Pal. V(ig(it., ii, p. 684. It agrees especially with the fig. 7 of Heer, loc. cit. This author remarks that the species essentially differs from Populus latior van subtrun- cata by the position of the lateral primary nerves at a distance from the 174 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUKVEY—TERTIAKY FJ.ORA. border base of the leaves. In our specimens, as seen in the figure, the dis- tance is still greater than in that of the Fl. Tert. Ilelv. Prof. Ileer remarks also that he has had for examination a largo number of specimens of the same species, but that in all, except one, which he has figured, the upper part of the leaves is destroyed, as it is in ours. lie mentions, as distinctive char- acters, the acutely serrate borders of the leaves, and the middle nerve thicker than the lateral ones, the same as seen upon our specimen. I believe, there- fore, that the identification of this leaf with the European species is fully authorized. Heer considers this species as allied to the living P.dilatata, Ait., and P. nigra, Linn. Habitat. — Point of Rocks, Wyoming {Dr. F. V. Hayden). Popiilus melanarioides, Lesqx. Plate LXII, Fig. 5. Populus melanarioides, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 302. Le.aves long-putioled, subcori.aceous, nearly round, Bubtruncate at baee ; borders entire, undu- late ; nervation teruate from above the base ; secondary veins, two pairs, at a great distance from the primary ones, these much branched outside, the others simple ; divisions passing to near the bor- ders or entering them. By its subcoriaceous substance and the long petiole of the leaves, this species is related to the section of the Trepid; vi, figs. 7,8; xv, fig. 1 c; ii, p. 468, pi. xliv, figs. 7-9; Iv, fig. 3 b; Si)itzb. Mioc. Fl., p. 54, pi. x, figs. 8-12. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 411. Leaves broadly ovate or nearly round, truncate or slightly cniarginate at the base, deeply irregu- larly crenate, palmately five-nerved; primary lateral nerves about as thick as the midrib, the upper ones at an acute angle of divergence, ascending to near the point, branching in right angle or in a broad angle ot divergence. As recognized from European specimcn.s, tlie leaves of this species are very variable in size, mostly broadly oval or round, even broader than long, with their borders deeply cut in irregular round teeth, a character which is clearly defined in figs. 11 and 12 of our plate. They are described as acuminate, and appear to be so in two figures of llic author; but, in others, they arc evidently obtuse, a character remarked upon the leaf of our fig. 12. There is a great difference in the relative position of the primary lateral nerves, which gen- erally come out from the top of the petiole, as in fig. 10, but which in fig. 11 become distant, the internal ones being far above the base of the lamina and of the lower ones. That this difTerence is unimportant for specification is evidenced by the nervation of the leaf in fig. 12, whose basilar nervation is intermediate between that of the two others. This species is, by its char- acters and its habitat, closely allied to the former. It is one of the most common of the Artistic Regions, but has not been found either in the Baltic or the Alaska Miocene. Habitat. — Elko Station, Nevada (Prof. E. D. Cope). It is represented in the collection by six specimens, being therefore abundant at the locality. § IV. — Coriacea. Pop ti Ins inntabilis, var. f. o v a I i $ , Heer. Plate XXIV, Figs. 3, 4. Pop\iU» mutabili» f. aZi«f, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 22 ; i, pi. i, figs. 1,2; ii, figs. 2o, i; ii, pi. Ix, fig. 12 6; Ixi, figs. 1-3,6,9; Ixiii, fig. 4.— Lesqx., Annuiil Report, 1871, p. 292; 1872, pp. 401, 40.5; 1873, p. 307. Leaves coriaceous, long, petiolate, oval, pointed, narrowed or rounded to the petiole; borders entire ; nervation three- or five-palmate. The references to the descriptions in the reports apply to different varieties of this species, some of which have not been figured, on account of the deficiency of the specimens, or from their exposition upon large rocks which could not be displace'd or broken. These varieties arc so numerous 12 T F 178 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. and so intimately allied by their characters that it is extremely hazardous lo identify single leaves with one of fhe eiglit subdivisiuus of this species in Heer's monograph. The 6rst of our leaves (fig. 3) is subcoriaceous, entire, oval, obtusely pointed, and narrowed to the long slender petiole in the same degree as to the point. The nervation is three-palmate from above the base, obscure, indeed ; for the lateral primary nerves, narrower than the midrib, are, as well as the secondary ones, scarcely discernible. For its shape and nerva- tion, it is like the leaves in Heer {loc. cit., pi. i, fig. 1 , and pi. ii, fig. 2 h). The other leaf, more distinctly coriaceous, is lanceolate, gradually enlarged toward the base, and rounded to (he petiole; the borders are entire, and the nerva- tion, five-pahnatc from above the base, is quite distinct and has the characters of Poplar leaves. The shape is, however, different from any of the leaves figured by Heer, its nearest affinity being with fig. 12 h of pi. Ix and fig. 1 of pi. Ixi. This leaf therefore may represent a new species of the division of the Coriacece. A very fine specimen of the var. e. repnndo-crenata, Heer, a leaf fully preserved, sixteen centimeters long, without the eight centimeters long petiole, and eight centimeters broad toward its round truncate base, was exposed at Evanston upon a block of sandstone prepared for building. I could only make a sketch of it, and l)y comparison found it perfectly similar to the fine leaf in Heer {loc. cit., pi. Ixii, fig. 4). Other fragments were recog- nized imbedded with bones of the Saurian at Black Buttes. Habitat. — Evanston, Utah, as represented in fig. 3. Six miles above Spring Canon, Montana, the leaf of fig. 4 {Dr. A. C. Peak). Black Buttes, Wyoming, etc. Populus arctica, Heer. Plate XXIII, Figs. 1-6. FopuluB ai-cHca, Heer, Fl. Foas. Arct., i, pp. 100, 1.37, 158, pi. iv, figs. 6 a, 7; y, vi, figs. '),6; viii, figs. .5,6; xvii, figs. 5 b, e; xxi, figs. 14, 15; xxx, fig. 9; ii, p. 408, pi. xliii, fig. 15 a; liii, fig. 4; Spitz. Mioc. Fl., p. 55, pi. X, figs. 2-7; xi, fig. 1; xii, fig. 6e. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, pp. 289, aOO; Supplement, p. 9 ; 1872, pp. 385, 401 ; 1873, p. 406. Leaves tbickish or coriaceous, round-oblong, or sometimes enlarged in the middle, and broader than long, .abruptly short-pointed, n.arrowcd or truncate to the petiole; borders entire, undulate or cre- nate; nervation five-palmate from the top of the petiole ; upper primary nerves as thick as the uiidrib, much branching outside, passing up in an acute angle of divergence and curving inside toward the point of the leaves ; secondary veius thinner, and distinct from the primary ones. Comparing the figures which represent this species, it is evident that their characters, however different they may be, all agree with those of the leaves described by Heer under this name. Fig. 1 and fig. 3, two leaves of the same size and of the same form, enlarged- in the middle, about seven DESCRIPTION OF Sl'ECIES— SALICINEiE. 179 cciilitneiers long iind as broad, witli LMitiie holders, a triiiicato or rounded base, abruptly short-pointed, seein like a copy of pi. v, Ug. .'5, of Ileer (/oc. cit.). Tiiis is only a little larger, but tlie ntM-vation is exactly the same. Our fig. 3 has the i)or(!crs (;ntire, not even undulate, but the same character is clearly marked upon the leaf of pi. x.\i, fig. 14, of the Arctic Flora. The transition from our fig. 8. a leaf broadly cuneate, to fig. h, narrowed to the base, is indi- cated l)y the intermediate form of fig. 4, and the leaf of fig. C, with crenate borders, finds its typical analogy in that of pi. x.\i, fig. 15, of Heer, an analogy indicated also by the habitat, as the leaves from Troublesome Creek, rep- resented in figs. 3 and G, are mixed with other intermediate forms upon the same specimen. It is well, however, to remark the similarity of this last figure with that of P.paleomelas, Sap. (Et., ii, 2, p. 123, pi. 7, fig. 10), which differs oidy by the primary nerves being more slender, not curving inside, and the secondary veins descending lower. The small leaf of fig. 2 is com- parable to those of the following species, but it has the strong, distinct nerva- tion of P. arctica, represented in the Arctic Flora l)y leaves still much smaller than this, and also the peculiar, wrinkled, somewhat shining surface of the species. Habitat. — Troublesome Creek, Colorado, Mr. Mitchell, who collected from the locality twelve specimens only, half of which represent this species, the others Platanus offinh. Carbon, Wyoming, where the species is common with Acer, Platanus accroides, etc. Green River, Wyoming, with species of Ficus of Miocene character. Though abundant in Greenland and Spitzber- gen, it is not described from Alaska. It has not been seen until now in the specimens from Oregon and of California. Populus dccipicus, Lesq:s. PlateXXIII, Figs. 7-11. Populun ded-piena, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1872, p. 385.— Sohp., r.-il. V^g^t., iii, p. 590. Leaves small, coriaceous, entire, broadly rhoraboidal, deltoid to the point, and also to the long, slender petiole, palmately three- or five-nerved from the base. The numerous leaves seen of this species have all the same characters. They are small, as broad as long, varying in size from one and a half to four centimeters long without the petiole, which is very slender, and as long as the lamina, if not longer. Broadly cuneate to the obtuse point, and equally so to the petiole, they are more or h'ss enlarged in the middle; one of the leaves of fig. 9 being four centimeters broad and less than three and a half 180 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. centimeters long. The surface is not rugose or crumpled, but rather smootli. T!i(! borders arc perfectly entire, not even undulate, and the consistence is coriaceous, somewhat less so than in the former species, which it resembles by the shape of the leaves and by the nervation. The primary nerves, however, are ranch thinner, the nervilles closer, strong, the upper ones passing to secondary nerves, or altogether taking their places, as in the fragment of the left side of fig. 9. In other leaves, however, the distribution of the secondary veins is the same as in P. a?xtica,oi' which this new species seems to be like a diminutive form. It has also a great similarity to Paliurus columbi, Heer, whose leaves are -found both at Carbon and Creston, mixed with those of this Fopulus, and undistinguishable when the petiole is destroyed. This remarkaljle likeness is seen in comparing for example fig. 10, whose petiole is shorter and thicker than in the other leaves, with figs. 14 and 15 of our pi. 1. The identity of habitat and the similarity of characters in these leaves has rendered their separation difficult, and for some of them uncertain. The relation of the.se two last species to Populus has been controverted, for the reason that no point of comparison is found at our time among living species of Poplars. The shape and nervation of the leaves have some like- ness to those of Cercis, these of P. decipiens resembling for example C. antiqua, Sap. (fit, i, p. 134, pi. xiv, fig. 4 a). This attribution is, however, contradicted by the long petiole of both the American Miocene species and by a marked diflerence in the details of the nervation. Habitat. — Creston, Washakie group {Dr. F. V. Hayden) ; Carbon, Wy- oming, shale above the main coal, as common there as P. arctica. Populus mouodon, Lesqz. Plate XXIV, Figs. 1,2. Populus monodon, Lesqx., Trans. Am. Phil. Soc, vol. xiii, p. 413, pi. xv, figs. 1,2 ; Aunual Report. 1871, Supplement, p. 13 ; 1073, p. 375.— Schp., Pal. V^g6t., ii, p. 699. Leaves large, corioceous, entire or undulate, broadly ov.ite, I.anceol.ate or taper-pointed, rounded to the base ; primary nerves b.asilar. The two first leaves of this species described from the Mississippi have the borders undulate, one of them being marked by a single obtuse short tooth. This difference, the only one remarked between them and those figured here, is • of no specific value. These leaves are large, from eight to sixteen centimeters long, and from six to twelve centimeters broad toward the base, those of the Mississippi being still larger. The very thick midrib, the slender secondary DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— PLAT ANEJi:. 181 nerves, numerous, equidistant, parallel, on the saino open angle of divergence of 60°, obliquely crossed by very strong nervillcs, are common characters to all the specimens of this species. From the position of the lower lateral nerves in our fig. 1, tiiey appear opposite from the base of the leaf, and show a tripalmate nervation. In fig. 2, the lower nerves are alternate, a dis- tribution which, though rare in leaves of Popvlus, is seen, as observed above, in the living P. balsam if era, var. angustifolia. Therefore, as the con- sistence of this leaf and its shape are the same as in tliat of fig. 1, I consider it as representing the same species. This Popuius is very closely allied to P. Gaudini (F. 0.), Heer (Fl. Tert. Helv., pi. Ixiv), by the form, the size, and the borders of the leaves entire or undulate. The nervation is also of the same type, rendered still more analogous by the absence of one of the pri- mary nerves in Heer's fig. 6, as it is in fig. 2 of our plate. The European P. Gaudini differs by the midrib being nearly half narrower, and the leaves abruptly narrowed into a long acumen. Habitat. — Raton Mountains, base of Fischer Peak, New Mexico (/>?-. F. V. Harden). I found the small leaf of fig. 2 at the same locality. PLATAN EJ:. PLATANUS, Tour. Four species only of this genus are known at our epoch. Platanus occidentalism Linn., the Plane-tree, or Buttonwood, as it is generally called, is common in this country, and one of the largest trees of the North American continent. Its i)abitat, by predilection, is along the rivers of the rich bottom- laud fisrtilized l)y iuundations, where it attains such a size that its trunk measures sometime four feet in diameter, even more, its branches spreading wide around in a kind of wild, irregular fashion peculiar to it, denoting free- dom oi' movement, and strength rather than elegance. Like the pioneer of the western wilderness, it seems uncouth and coarse. Its white bark hangs in patches along its l>ranches, like the shreds of an old tattered garment, but its limbs are sound and healthy, always covered in summer with a profusion of large leaves. Its trunk is often hollow, but the tree is tenacious of life. It defies the attacks of the wild elements, the devastating hurricane, the cold storms of the winter, Ihc tropical heat of the hottest summer days, protecting against the multiple changes of t)ur capricious climate the world of vegetables 182 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. sheltered under its branches. In the wide plains liarren of trees, it is seen looming far away as a fringe to a distant horizon, inviting the tired and thirsty caravan of the western prairies to a place of rest, where it finds abundance of fuel and water. All the species of Platanus are easily recognized by their leaves, gener- ally of large size, somewhat thick, even coriaceous, especially in a fully ripe state, palmately lobed and three- or five-nerved from above the base of the lamina. These leaves have a strongly marked and a mixed nervation, the primary nerves reaching the point of the lobes, while their divisions, as also the secondary nerves, either end into the points of the teeth or curve along the borders as camptodrome. Of the four living species, one, P. orientalis, Linn., is indigenous in Asia Minor, whence it has passed to Europe, and has there become a favorite as an ornamental tree. If more elegant in the distribution of its branches than P. OCX iden talis, it is also generally of much smaller size. Two other species, P. Imdeniana, Mart., and P. Mexicana, Moric, thrive in the valleys of Mexico; the other, P. racemosa, Nutt., belongs to California. In the Cretaceous of the Dakota group, we find already four well char- acterized species of this genus, one of which is by its leaves remarkably similar to P. aceroides of tiie Miocene, the ancestor of P. occidentalis. Besides these, three other forms have been ascribed to the same genus with less posi- tive evidence. The Cretaceous formations of Europe have, to the present time, no representatives of Platanus. Neither in the Cretaceous floras of Greenland, of Quedlinburg, and of Moletin, by Heer, nor in that of Nie- dershoena, by d'Ettingshausen, do we find any vegetable remains ascribed to the genus. Nor is it mentioned, to my knowledge, in the manuscript notes obtained from Devey and d'Ettin|shausen on the dicotyledonous plants of the Cretaceous of Belgium. We find the same difference in passing up to the Eocene formations. In the Lower Lignitic of the Rocky Mountains, this disputed ground where Eocene evidence afforded by vegetable remains is contested by animal paleontology, which points to the Cretaceous, four spe- cies oi Platanus are recognized, one of which, P. Haydenii, Newby., is closely allied to our living P. occidentals. The Eocene of Europe has none; at least, no species of this kind is described from the Lower Eocene of Gelinden and of Sdzanne, and I do not find any mentioned in the list of the species recognized at Mount Bolca W(; have to go up to the Upper Miocene of DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— PLATANE^. 183 Oeningen, Lobsau, Aix, etc., to find in Europe the first remains of Platanus, — P. areroides, Heer, iiiul P. Guillelmce, Gocpp., two species so much alike that they have for a long time been considered as one. In the Upper Lignitic; of the Rocky Mountains, we iiave the same two .species in Alaska and at Carbon; and si ill higher, in the Pliocene of California, there are two more, P.appcndicvUita, Lesqx., which, like P. lindeniana, has bifid deciduous stipules, and P. dissccta, Lesqx., whose leaves, sometimes three-lobate and less deeply dentate, have a relation to P. niccmom. P. aceroides being recognized as ancestor of P. occidental/^!, we find thus in the geological times forms inti- mately related to those of (he [ircsent llora of this continent, and therefore a clear historical record of the genus. Plata II us Guillelmce, Goepp Pl.ate XXV, Figs. 1,2,3. Platamia Guillelma, Ooepp., Foss. Fl. v. Schoss., p. 21, pi. xi, figs. 1,2.— Heer, Fl. Foes. Arct., ii, p. 473, pi. xlvii, xlviii, xlix, figs. 4 i.c, d.— Lesqx., Annual Report, 1871, pp. 289,290; Supplement, p. 9 ; Annual Keport, 1872, p. :)H7.' Platanu^ CEninghauniana, Goepp., Joe. cit., pi. x, fig. 4. riatamis aceroides, Heer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 71, pi. Ixxxviii, figs. 13, 14 ; Fl. Toss. Arct,, i, pi. xii. Leaves membranaceous, subtrilobate, with dentate or undulate borders, subtruucate or rapidly narrowed to a short petiole. This form has been a long time considered by Heer as a mere variety of P. accroide^s, Goepp., and is still admitted as such by d'Ettingshausen. Our leaves, as figured in pi. xxv, do not show a clear distinction of the characters which ought to separate the species. As far as our specimens indicate it, it is scarcely possible to admit that they represent two specific forms. Figs. 4 and 5, which I think referable to P. aceroides, have the shar[) and large teeth of this species; but fig. 4 has the leaves more distinctly cuneate or narrowed to the petiole, and fig. 5 has not ai>y lobes, and these two characters refer them to P. GuiUelnite. In the large number of specimens obtained of this type at Carbon, some fragments have still longer, more acute lobes and teeth than these two leaves, and therefore are more positively referable to P. aceroides. In the three leaves which represent P. GuiUeimcE, fig. 3 has the teeth scarcely marked, indeed, like mere undulations; in fig. 2, they are shorter than in fig. 4, hut already turned upward, and a slight increase of size and sharpness of teeth and lobes does not seem to be of account for a specific * The specimens referred to this species from Placifere,7?ew Mexico, are too obscure for precise •letermination. That of Black Butt.es, described in Eeport, 1872, is referable to Viburnum platanoides. 184 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TEETIAEY FLORA. character. Thougli it may be, I have here separated the leaves according to the descriptions and figures of the European authors, without positively rec- ognizing this distinction as legitinriate; for P. accroides and P. Guillelmce are both represented by specimens from the same localities. From Goeppert's iigures {loc. cit.), the leaves are all much smaller than those of our plate, espe- cially than fig. 3. In Heer's, however, fig. I of pi. xlvii {loc. cit.) is about of the same size as ours. Habitat. — Carbon, Wyoming, where it is the most abundant; Washakie Station, Wyoming {Dr. F. V. Hat/den). Plata 11 us aceroides, Goepp. PlatcXXV, Figs. 4,5,6. Platanus aceroidct, Goepp., Fobs. F1. v. Scboss., p. 21, pi. ix, figs. 1-3.— Heer, Fl. Ter. Helv., ii, p. 71, pi. Ixxxvii, Ixxxviii, figs. 5-12, 15 ; FI. Foss. Arct., i, p. Ill, pi. xlvii, fig. 3; p. 138, pi. xxi, fig. 17 fc; xxiii, figs. 2 6, 4; p. 150, pl.xxvi, fig. 5 ; p. 159, pi. xxxii, figs. 1, 2.— G.aud. & Strozzi, Feuilles Foss., p. 35, pi. v, figs. 4-C, vi, figs. 1-3.— Lesqx., Annual Report, 1869, p. 196 ; 1871, p. 290 ; Supplenjent, p. 11 ; AuuurI Report, 1^72, pp. 389, 406. PlatnnuB rtigosn, Ooepp., loc. dt., p. 20, pi. xi, figs. 3, 4. Platanus cunei/olia, Goepp., loc. cit., p. 22, pi. xii, fig. 2. Plataims (Eninghausiana, Goepp., loc. cit., p. 20, pi. x, figs. 1-3. Platanus Ettingshauseni, Mass., ex p. Synops., p. 49 (pi. cit., xvii, fig. 3, xix, fig. 3). Cissua platanifolia, Ett., Foss. Fl. v. Vien., p. 20, pi. iv, fig. 1. Qucrcaa platanoides, Goepp., loc. cit., pi. vii, figs. 5,6. (Juerctis rotundata, Goepp., loc. cit., pi. viii, fig. 9. Le.ave8 piilmately trilobate, truncate or round-cordate to the petiole ; borders deeply acutely den- tate, with unequal teeth turned upward. As said in tlie description of the former species, this Platanus sliows a great variety in the characters of its leaves. It is the same in our living species, which, on the same tree, bear leaves from three to thirty centime- ters broad between the hit(^-al lobes, and from four to twenty centimeters long. The length of the petiole is equally variable, from one and a half centimeters to eight; two leaves of the same size, and close to each other, upon the same branch, having the petiole, one five centimeters long, and tiie other nine. Most of the leaves taken from grown-up trees are three-, more generally five-lobed, with acute divisions, the teeth of the borders being also very acute, generally turned upward, and with the base truncate or broadly cordate. It is only upon the young shoots growing in thickets in the gravelly beds of the rivers that we see leaves scarcely lobate, or not at all, merely with short, irregularly dentate borders. These represent in their outline and general characters the fossil leaves described as P. Guillelnue, the others those oi P . aceroides. Both species may be therefore con.sidercd, in an equal DESCIilPTION OF SPECIES— PLATANEJ5. 185 degree of evidence, as the ancestors of P. occidenlalis. Small round leaves, without distinct lobes, like our fig. 5, are rarely seen in tlie living species. It is the form represented by Heer in Fl. Tert. Ilelv., pi. Ix.xxviii, fig. 10, as P. aceroides. It is also very rare to find in the living state as large leaves as that of our fig. 3, with nearly entire or scarcely dentate borders, all the leaves of P. occldentaUs resembling this fossil form by their shape, having the base narrowed, wedge-form, and the borders distinctly and sharply dentate. But we have a similar l()rm in Heer (Fl. Foss. Arct., pi. xlvii, fig. 1), referred by the author to P. GuillelmcB. Fig. 6 of our plate represents a separate stipule of a different species. As it is nearly entire or obtusely dentate, it l)elongs probaWy to P.Haijdenii, Newby., whose leaves are generally very large, either trilobate, with lobes directed upward and obtusely dentate, or with merely ovate, simply or doubly dentate leaves, without lobes. Specimens of this species occur in profusion at Golden, and often both forms are represented ui^on the same block of sandstone. Habitat. — Same as the former. Plata 11 us Rayiioldsii, Ncwby. Plate XXVI, Figs. 4,5; Plate XXVII, Figs. l-A. Plalaitvs BaynoUsii, Newby., Extinct Fl. of N. Am., p. 69.— Lesqx., Annual Report, 1872, pp. 379, 399.— Schp., Pal. V^g^t., ii, p. 708. Vnr. Integrifolin. Platanus integri/olia, Le8qx.,MSS. Leaves of large size, suborbiculiir or obscurely triangular in ontliue, more or less rounded and entire toward the decurrent bise, dentate, serrate or undulate, even entire, subcoriaceous. The author of this species has had for his description a leaf fully pre- served, with two short lol)es or points below the more elongated terminal one, and with borders coarsely doUbly dentate. None of my specimens has the poin.t preserved ; the general shape only is surmised from the more or less incomplete fragments, and the denticulation is marked upon all the leaves of pi. xvii, either in sharp or obtuse, small teeth passing above to mere undula- tions. Though I have no doubt. that all these leaves represent the same species, there are some differences, striking enough to warrant the representation of these leaves of ours, which expose characters not recognized in the specimens which were in the possession of Dr. Newberry. This difference is especially in the integrity of the borders of the leaves (pi. xxvi, figs. 4 and 5), a character which has not been recognized to this time in any species ol' Platan u.s. The nervation of all the forms is perfectly similar. In pi. xxvii, fig. 2, the leaf, dentate at or near the base, is merely undulate in its upper part, and, from ihe direction and thinning of the primary nerves, it is evidently not lobatc, but 186 U^■ITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. merely ronnd(Ml or pointed; fig. 4 of pi xxvi lias the same form, and the bordens are only .-sliglilly undulate, while in fig. 5 of the same plate the borders are perfectly entire. Hence, with these distinct modifications of characters exposed to view, it would not be advisable to consider these leaves under different specific names, as I did formerly, before I had opportunity to recog- nize the variations upon a large number of specimens. The size of the leaves is, like the length of the petiole, as variable as in the other congeners. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado, in connection with P. Hnydenu; the spe- cimen of 1)1. xxvii, fig. 3, is from the same locality, by Rev. A. Lakes; the specimen of pi. Ixxvi, fig. 4, is from Black Buttes, Wyoming. Platan us rlioniboidca, Lesqx. Plato XXVI, Figs. 6, 7. Platanus rltomboidea, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 400. Leaves membranaceous or subcoriaceous, enlarged upward from a narrowed cuneiform base, obscurely lobed above the middle, entire tovi-ard tbe base, deeply sharply dentate in tbe upper p.-irt ; lateral nerves in an acute angle of divergence, parallel. The substance of these leaves is of the same consistence as in the former species, either membranaceous or subcoriaceous; the shape is rhomboidal in outline, largest at the middle, hence narrowed and entire to the base, broadly lanceolate or subtruncate to the point, and there deeply dentate; the lateral teeth entered by the lateral nerves being a little longer or passing to short acute lobes. From the two only specimens in my possession, tbe leaves of this species appear comparatively small, from seven to twelve centimeters long and from five to nine broad. The nervation is Platanoidal, but the wedge- shaped base of the leaves does not agree in character with that of Platanus leaves, at least in a general point of comparison ; for, as I have remarked already, P. occidcntalis has in some peculiar habitat all its leaves narrowed to the petiole, but dentate to the base, and even a variety of P. orientalis, described as P. c«weate, Willd., has them cuneate, and often entire downward, in the same manner as our fossil species. The fossil leaves, however, are of a more coriaceous substance. Habitat. — Golden, Colorado (CajH. E. Berthoud, Rev. A. Lakes). BALSAMIFLU^. LiaUIDAMBAR, Linn. The genus is represented in tlie flora of our e[)och by five species. One of them, Liquidumbar styraciJLuum, Linn., the North American Sweet Gum, DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— DLMACE^. 187 is a tiee of moderate size, with tivc-palmalo, serrulate, dark green leaves, emitting, when bruised, a pleasant fragrance by the exuding of a sweet-scented glim. The species has a wide range of distribution, being most frequent in the southern district of our llora, as marked in Gray's Statistics, even passing above its northern limits and descending to South Florida and Mexico. It has, like Platanus, a close relation to an Oriental congener, Liquidamhar ori- entale, Mill., indigenous of Asia Minor; two other species, with pennincrvate leaves, not l()l)ate, inliabit the East Indian region, Java, and C'liina. Another, with tripalmately divided leaves, has been more recently discovered in Japan. To the present time, no leaves of Liquidmnhar have been recognized in the specimens from the Lignitic of the Rocky Mountains. The genus is, however, represented in the Miocene Flora of Alaska by Heer, p. 25, pi. ii, fio-. 7 and in a more recent formation, that of the Chalk Bluifs of California, it has numerous leaves of a species closely allied to the living L. styrncijluum. I have described as referable to Liquh/amhar some leaves from the Creta- ceous deposits of the Dakota group. As they have the borders entire, they typically ditTcr from tlie genus, as far at least as it is represented at our time, and, therefore, this reference is doubtful. Though it may ])c of the origin o( Liqui/famhar, its presence is positively traced on this continent as tlir back as the Miocene. -Europe has until now two fossil species with serrate leaves from the same formation, and a tiiird, L. Gaepperti, Walt., from the Paleocene, whose leaves have the borders entire, bearing to the norinal form the same relation as L. integrifoUum, Lesqx., of the Dakota group. URTlCINEiE. U L M A C E M. ULMUS, Linn. The Elm leaves are short petioled, ovate-acuminate or broadly lanceolate, pointed, doubly acutely dentate or s(!rrate, with a more or less inequikitcral base, and a pinnate nervation, of clo.se, deeply marked, secondary veins, ascending at first straight toward the borders, and then curving up, in enter- ing the teeth, as craspedodrome. The species of this genus are at our present time about equally distributed in the northern hemisphere, nine of its eighteen species being Asiatic (four of them in China), four European, and six Ameri- can. Except U. Mexicana, which Liebman found in the western declivities of the Cordilleras, all the American species inhabit the northeastern slope of 188 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TEKTIAEY FLORA. lliis continent; none has been found until now in California and along the North Pacific coast. Their range is especially in the whole area between the great lakes and the gulf shores, except for U. cra.ssifolia, Nutt., which is not known north of Arkansas, and V.Jhndana, Chap., limited to Florida. Considering its geological records, the genus seems of recent origin in this coiintiy. The only species described here is from the Upper Miocene of South Park. Three others are known from the Chalk Bluffs or Pliocene of California; but in the Lower Lignitic, even in that of Carbon, no leaves of Ulmus have been found until now. One species, however, is described by Heer, from the Miocene of Alaska ( U. plurinervia, Ung), where it is repre- sented by a single leaf, and another has been found in Oregon. None is recorded from Greenland. Per contra, in Europe, the genus has a number of representatives already in the Lower Eocene; three are described by Saporta, from Suzanne, and twenty-two other species are recorded in Schim- per's Pal. Vdg^t, mostly from the Paleocene and the Lower Miocene forma- tions. From all these representatives of old, the present distribution of the genus upon the old continent seems normal. It does not appear to be the same in North America, for while we find in the Pliocene of California three species of Elms, none has been left there in it-s present flora, and all the American species are now, as remarked above, distributed on the eastern slope. This fact represents only an apparent anomaly; the existence of the Elms in California at the Pliocene epoch proving a persistence over the whole continent of some types locally and more recently destroyed by glacial agency. Ulmus tcniiinerTis, Lesqx Plate XXVI, Figs. 1-3. Vlmus ienuinervis, Lesqx., Annual Report, 187."?, p. 412. Leaves small, thin, short-pwtioled, either round and equal, or cordate and inequilateral at the base, lauceolato, gradually acuminate; borders unequally serrate ; lateral veius thin, more or less flexuuus, and curved in passing up to the borders. The leaves of this species are comparatively small, averaging six centi- meters in length and less than three centimeters in width. Their nervation is thinner, and the direction of the lateral veins less straight or more curved than in any other spe, however, does not closely agree in its characters with those of tliis species. The secondary nerves are too close and equidistant, reaching to near the borders, and following them in a series of cnrves. 'Its thick midiib refers it to a iVcws, and its narrowed base to this species. It is from a different locality, and the only fragment which I had for identification. Habitat. — The leaves in figs. 1-3 are from the Green Eiver group, Wy- oming, with Populus arctica and Cyperus Chavanenais (Dr. F. V. Hin/den); fig. 4 is from a specimen from Willow Creek, Middle Park, Colorado (Dr. W. H. Holmes); and fig. 5 from Florissant, near South Park, Colorado {Prof. E. D. Cope). Ficus Jyiix, Ung. Plate XXVIII, Fig. G. i'lc'iis Jtjnx, Uog., Fl. V. Sotzka, p. 16,5, pi. xxxiii, fig. 3.— Ett., Tert. Fl. v. Hiir., p. 41, pi. x, figw. C-8; Fobs. Fl. v. Bil.,p. 69, pi. xx, figs. 2-7.— Ilcer, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, p. 63, pi. Ixxxv, figs, 8-11. — Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 414. Rhamnus Eridani, Ung., Foss. Fl. v. Sotzka., p. 178, pi. lii, figs. 4-6 (Me Ett.). Leaves coriaceous, lanceolate, narrowed to the petiole; secondary nerves .it an open angle of divergence, close, parallel, simple, straight to the borders, where they abruptly curve along them. The leaves of this species, as represented by Heer and Unger {loc. cit.), are larger than the fragment figured here, and generally broadly oval and obtuse. Fig. 7, however, of the Bilin Flora is similar to ours in every point. The German author refers to this same species three leaves of the Sotzka Flora (figs. 4-6, pi. lii), which also closely resemble ours, especially fig. 6. The identity, however, is not absolutely ascertained on account of the frag- mentary state of our leaf, whose petiole is broken and its upper part destroyed. The direction of the secondary veins, at the same angle of divergence as in the European form, and abruptly curving in touching the apparently reflexed borders, relate this leaf rather to Rhamnus than to Ficus. Habitat. — Elko Station, Nevada {Prof. E. D. Cope). 13 T F 194 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUllVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. Ficus niultiiicrvis, Heer. Plate XXVIII, rigs. 7, 8. Ficus mulHnerris, UeeT, Fl. Tert. Helv., ii, !>. G3, pi. Issxi, figs. 6-10; Issxii, fig. 1.— Ett., Fosx. Fl. v. Bil., p. 63, pi. XX, figs. 5, 6.— Leeqx., Aunual Report, 1871, p. 300. Leaves coriaceous, very entire, elliptical-laneeolate, acuiuinate, gradually or rapidly narrowed to the base ; lateral nerves at an open angle of divergence, very close, parallel, curving close to tbe borders ; areolation very small, quadrangular. Considering the form of the leaves of this species, we see it represented in both figs. 7 and 8 of our plate, in coincidence, the first with figs. 7 and 8 of Heer (loc. cit.), and the second with fig. 6, which represents a leaf of about the same size, with the base round-truncate. Except that the secondary nerves are somewhat more oblique to the midrib, generally at least, but not more so than in fig. 7 {loc. cit.), the nervation has the same characters. The secondary nerves, very close, running straight to the borders, are separated by interme- diate tertiary veins, which, though somewhat thinner, are quite discernible even to near the borders. Joined by nervilles in right angle, divided and subdivided in the same manner, the result is an ultimate areolation of very small and quadrangular meshes. This areolation, more distinct upon the American leaves than upon those described by European authors under this name, and also the more oblique divergence of the veins, seem, however, to disagree with the characters of the species, even with those of the genus. Considering these differences, Count Saporta is disposed to refer these leaves to Laurus, or perhaps to Nerium, rather than to Ficus. ' HABrrAT. — Green River group, with tlie leaves represented in figs. 1-3 as Ficus lanceolata {Dr. F. V. Hayden). Ficus oblanceolata, Lesqz Plate XXVIII, Figs. 9-12. Fxcua oblanceolata, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1872, p. 387. — Schp., Pal. Y6g6t., iii, p. 595. Leaves subcoriaceous, entire, obovate or obhmccolate, obtusely pointed or acuminate, cuneate to the petiole; secondary veins numerous, parallel, camptodrome. The leaves of this species have some likeness to those of F. lanceolata, Heer. Their form is comparatively shorter and broader, and their nerva- tion far more equal, the lateral nerves being close, equidist