36 MKSOZOIC FLOIJAS OF IMTKD >TATES. 



alleged petrified cones of Mr. Hiookhank. In passino; his house, on 

 our way to Flagstaff, Mr. Hiowii and I were kindly pennilted l)y Mr. 

 Brookljank to examine all the fossils in his possession. Xone of the 

 supposed cones were sucli. and all of them belonged to the same class 

 of materials that I have described. Although they are not cones, they 

 have some paleol)()tanical interest, and I made a thorough study of 

 their origin and nature. They occur in the Petrified Forest and else- 

 where, are usually spoken of by the inhabitants of the coimtry as stems, 

 and are supposed to be the smaller branches l^elonging to the upper 

 part of the trees which mak(^ up the foi-est. This, however, is an 

 eri'oneous view, and I discovei-ed that they always came out of the 

 interior of the tninks and belong to the bodies of the trees. They 

 vary indefinitely in size and length as well as in texture, and only a few 

 of them are surrounded by crystals. They either have to do with the 

 vascular tissues of the trunks or else they are modifications of the pitch 

 blisters described above, and represent lines along which the resin was 

 disposed to accumulate either during the growth of the tree or, more 

 probably, as a result of the process of mineralization, during which these 

 products were segregated and arranged along certain lines. I lirought 

 with me a sufficient number and variety of these objects to illustrate 

 their true character. 



The petrified wood of Arizona is found widely scattered over the 

 Paleozoic terrane. One small specimen only, picked up ]\v Mr. P. C. 

 Bicknoll, was found at the foot of Red Butte, which must have come from 

 the conglomerate bed at the summit. But in the vicinity of Williams, 

 both southwest and east of the town, I found many pieces of unmistakable 

 fossil wood lying about among the dark porous rocks of the lava. They 

 all show the effect of heat, are themselves somewhat porous, and have 

 douljtless lost all their minute structure, but tlieir true natui-e as wood 

 can not be dout)ted. I brought away a number of specimens, and also 

 have those collected near Supai two years before. Moreover, I met many 

 persons who reported finding it under similar conditions near FlagstafT and 

 on the north side of Mount Agassiz, as well as farther on in the direction 

 of the Grand Canyon. These occurrences are certainly difficult to explain, 

 especially in view of the fact that, with one exception, no wood has thus 

 far been found below the true Shinarump. It seems necessary to admit 

 that not only the Moencopie Ijeds Ijut also the conglomerate once cov- 



