510 Descriplions of the Fossil Plants 



are either common to the two continents, or the American 

 species are so like the European as to be undistinguisha- 

 ble without better specimens than have yet been procured. 

 Guided only by the very imperfect view yet obtained of 

 the rich flora of the Bellingham Bay deposits, we are com- 

 pelled to regard it as corresponding to that of the Lower 

 Miocene of Europe. 



In the splendid collections of tertiary plants made by 

 Dr. Hayden, on the Upper Missouri, are several species 

 which are identical with some of those found at Belling- 

 ham Bay, and there is no question that the plant bearing 

 strata of these two districts are essentially parallel. 



At Point Doughty, Orcas Island, a group of fossil plants 

 was collected by the Commission, of which the age can 

 scarcely be determined from the notes and specimens be- 

 fore us. The position of this island, as will be seen by 

 reference to the map, is intermediate between Bellingham 

 Bay and Nanaimo, and no reliable connection with the 

 geology of either locality can be said to be as yet estab- 

 lished, either by continuity of strata, or identity of fossils. 



The plants, though numerous, are, with perhaps one ex- 

 ception, dilTerent from any yet found on the main land, or 

 about Nanaimo. They include Tcetiiopteris Gibbsii, Sp/ien- 

 opleris elon^ata^ a species of Sabal represented in the col- 

 lection by specimens too imperfect for accurate determi- 

 nation, and several angiospermous leaves, among which 

 are those of a Chinamomuni, perhaps identical with C. 

 Heerii (Lesqx.). Nothing satisfactory can be deduced 

 from a comparison of the plants collected in this locality, 

 with any described from the cretaceous or tertiary rocks 

 of other portions of America or of Europe, as the species 

 are all new, and the genera not characteristic of either for- 

 mation. Supposing the Cinnamomum to be identical with 

 that of Nanaimo, I have conjectured that the plant-beds 

 of Orcas Island were cretaceous. 



