Lesquereux.] ^XJK) [Jan. 5, 



R. II. direc;e*l llie researches to the more interesting lociililios, pri'scntcd 

 to me all tiie specimens found by himself, and when I returned to Phila- 

 delphia gave me the privilege of examining his cabine', to select from 

 it all the materials which might be of use to my work. 



The last, but not the least, important communication to the Survey is 

 due to ^Ir, S. S. Strong, of Morris, 111. I have already remarked upon his 

 cabinet, which was opened for my researches in connection with the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Illinois. Since that time this proficient explorer of 

 vegetable remains has constantly increased his splendid collection, especially 

 from the nodules of !Mazou creek. Lately he proposed that I should go to 

 Morris to make a fair review of his specimens and to determine them, offer- 

 ing to the Survey, as a compensation to m}' work, all those which I should 

 consider as representatives of very rare or new species. This examination 

 has added an important s'.ore of materials of great value to those whicli we 

 had already ; and it is evident that by the addition of a number of species 

 of various types, either new or not observed before at Morris, we have in 

 the flora of that locality the best possible point of comparison for geological 

 distribution ot the coal flora ; while, by its station between the two essential 

 subdivisions of the coal measures, it offers the same advantages forjudging 

 of the modifications of the plants in passing from the sub carboniferous 

 upwards. 



To close this enumeration of the resources now in store for the prepara- 

 tion of the North America Coal Flora I have still to mention the publica- 

 tions made in this country upon the same subject , for of course this Flora 

 has to take into consideration the materials used in the preparation of these 

 works. The most important ones are the memoirs of Professor J. AY. Daw- 

 son, of Montreal, who has studied for years the Devonian and lower carbo. 

 niferous floras of Canada, and of the Western States with a patience and 

 industry which have justly rendered his name famous. After this in de- 

 gree of importance we have, in the first volume on the Paleontology of the 

 Geological Reports of Ohio, a valuable monography of fruits of the carboni- 

 ferous by Dr. Newberry. It throws much light ujion the true characters of 

 those vegetable remains so rarely found in a good state of ])reservation, and 

 so difflcult to study, especially in regard to their relationsliips. A 

 number of them had been briefly described, by the same author, in the 

 Annals of Science, IS.irs. The second volume of the same Report is en- 

 riched bj' a memoir of Professsr E B. Andrews, upon species of fossil 

 plants discoveretl by himself in the formation of the AVaverly Sandstone of 

 Ohio. By the precise descriptions and the splendid illustrations of the spe- 

 cies representing new tyi)ioal forms of the vegetation of the coal this mem- 

 oir is indeed an important contribution to vegetable paleontology. We 

 had had before upon some species of the Vespertine of Virginia a too short 

 paper from Professor B. F. Meek, with two fine plates of illustrations, and 

 an accuracy of description which so remarkably charactcri/ed this paleonto- 

 logist who leaves behind him a wide-world repute. This has been followed 

 up by another memoir on the conglomerate series of Virginia, by Pro- 



