BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 Vol. 3, pp. 217-218 April 15, 1892 



FOSSIL PLANTS FROM THE WICHITA OR PERMIAN BEDS 



OF TEXAS. 



BY I. <'. WHITE. 



In the spring- of the present year. Mr. E. T. Dumble, state geologist of 

 Texas, sent me for examination a small collection of fossil plants from 

 the Wichita beds of that state. 



These plants were discovered and collected by Mr. W. F. Cummins, 

 assistant on the Texas survey. They occur in the Wichita beds along 

 with invertebrate remains which Dr. C. A. White lias assigned to a Per- 

 main age. and vertebrate remains which Professor Cope asserts are of 

 the same age. 1 was therefore quite anxious to know what answer the 

 plants might give to the question of supposed geological equivalency 

 between the Wichita series of deposits and those at the summit of the 

 Carboniferous column in southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia 

 and in southern Ohio, where the invertebrate and reptilian remains are 

 absent, or at least not yet discovered, though plan! remains are abundant. 



These West Virginia beds above the horizon of the Waynesburg coal 

 had long ago (1878) been referred to the Permian by Professor W'm. M. 

 Fontaine and myself,* upon the evidence of the fossil plants found 

 therein : but as the correctness of this reference had been questioned, or 

 at least not generally recognized by American geologists, the opportunity 

 to compare this flora with that of a locality containing a Permian fauna, 

 through the kindness of Mr. Dumble, was heartily welcomed. 



After such cursory examination as I could give the plants when firs! 

 received, I saw at a glance thai they were either identical with, or very 

 near relatives of, our West Virginia plants from the beds above the 

 Waynesburg coal, and so wrote Mr. Dumble at the time. Bui to be 

 certain of the matter, I sent the plants to Professor Win. M. Fontaine, 

 the distinguished paleobotanisl at the university of Virginia, who at my 

 requesl examined the collection and sent me the following li-t of iden- 

 tifiable species ; 



* I'l'. Ponnsyh mi i Si < I Rpologienl Survej . 



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