i26 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



fossil in America, and it was appropriately transmitted for study to 

 Mrs. Britton of the New York Botanical Garden, the best authority on 

 American mosses. It may now be seen in the great Botanical Museum 

 in Bronx Park. 



Flowers and fruits are quite numerous in the shale, though, un- 

 fortunately, nearly always detached from the plants, so that they can 

 not be correlated with the leaves. Some of them are very well pre- 

 served and easily recognizable; others, even though reasonably perfect, 

 have puzzled all the botanists who have examined them. One curious 

 specimen is a bean pod, with most of the beans still in it, but one just 

 in the act of falling out. Grass-seeds are often found, and we have 

 one which had just begun to sprout when it was overwhelmed by a 

 fall of ash. 



