208 



SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1921. 



Alabama and the Cheyenne sandstone of south- 

 ern Kansas. I have recently received a fine 

 specimen from northeastern New Mexico from 

 a sandstone that appears to represent the Pur- 

 gatoire formation. 



The specimens from the Cheyenne sandstone, 

 all of which are fragmentary, were found in 

 brown clay in a draw on Medicine Lodge Creek, 

 3 miles above Belvidere (collected by Ward and 

 Vaughan, 1896, no number); 1^ miles north- 

 west of Belvidere (2218) ; near Medicine Lodge 

 Creek, 2 miles west of Belvidere (2224, same 

 locality as that first cited); and 2^ miles due 

 west of Belvidere (2226). 



Order GLEICHENIALES. 



Family GLEICHENIACEAE. 



Genus GLEICHENIA Smith. 



Gleichenia nordenskioldi Heer.^° 



Plate XLVII, figure 1. 



Gleichenia nordensholdi Heer, Flora fossilis arctica, vol. 3, 

 Abt. 2, p. 50, pi. 9, figs. 6-12, 1874; vol. 6, Abt. 2, 

 p. 8, pi. I, figs. 1, la, 1882. 

 Lesquereux, U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey Terr. Ann. 

 Rept. for 1874, p. 334, pi. 2, fig. 5, 1876; Cretaceous 

 and Tertiary floras, p. 26, pi. 1, figs. 1, la, 1883; 

 U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 17, p. 2.5, 1892. 



This species was described originally by 

 Heer from material collected in the Kome beds 

 of western Greenland. Species of GleicJienia 

 are very abundant throughout the Cretaceous 

 section of that region, and Heer founded very 

 manj' species on this material, more than seem 

 warranted. The stratigraphic boundary be- 

 tween the Kome and Atane beds has been 

 shown by subsequent workers to be very 

 indefinite, and the Atane beds are present 

 at the Kome locality, a fact which may account 

 for the range accredited to a large number 

 of the species. 



Lesquereux subsequently identified Glei- 

 chenia nordenskioldi from the Dakota sand- 

 stone at Fort Harker, Kans. His material 

 was not very convincing and perhaps should 

 not have received a specific name. Material 



"The following do not belong to this species: 

 QUidienia nordenskioldi Fontaine, U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 15, p. 119, 



pi. 21, fig. 11, 1S90. 

 aitichenia nordenakioldi Fontaine, in Ward.U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 48, p. 



231, pi. 65, figs. 24-29, 1906. 

 Pezopicris strictineriis Fontaine . Fontaine, in Diller and Stanton, Geol. 



Soc. America Bull., vol. 6, p. 450, 1895; in Stanton, U. S. Geol. 



Survey Bull. 133, 1895, p. 15, [18%). 

 Aspidium heterophyllum Fontaine. Fontaine, in Diller and Stanton, 



op. cit., p. 450; in Stanton, op. cit., p. 15. 

 Qimunda dicksonioides Fontaine . Fontaine, in Diller and Stanton, op. 



cit., p. 450; in Stanton, op. cit., p. 15. 



identical with that of Lescjuereux is not un- 

 common in the Cheyenne sandstone, and I 

 have used the same name for it, although it 

 should be borne in mind that neither Les- 

 cjuereux's material nor mine is distinct from 

 what has commonly been called GleicJienia zi-p- 

 pei Heer,-' which has been identified, often 

 wrongly, I believe, at a large number of localities 

 and horizons. 



The unwarranted determination of uniden- 

 tifiable scraps by Ward and especially by 

 Fontaine has almost completelj' obscured the 

 stratigraphic value of anj' material that they 

 described. The specimen from Dutch Gap, 

 Va., which Fontaine referred to this species 

 not only differs from the type material but 

 might readily represent the terminal portion 

 of half a dozen different Patuxent species of 

 ferns. Similarly the specimens from the Knox- 

 ville formation which Fontaine referred to 

 Gleichenia nordenskioldi are not only not that 

 species but they are not even all the same thing, 

 and the fact that these identical fragments 

 were also referred by Fontaine to Pecopteris, 

 Aspldivm, and Osmunda, as well as to Gleiche- 

 nia, is a fitting commentary on both the char- 

 acter of the material and the critical value of 

 Fontaine's results. 



What I have called GleicJienia nordensJcioldi 

 is found in the Cheyenne sandstone in clay 2^ 

 miles due west of Belvidere (2226), also de- 

 scribed as a draw on Medicine Lodge Creek, 3 

 miles above Belvidere (fern bed, no number), 

 collected by Ward and Vaughan in 1896. 



Gleichenia? bohemica (Corda) Berry. 

 Plate XLVII, figure 2. 



Pecopteris bohemica Corda, in Reuss, Versteinerungen der 



bohmisfhen Kreideformation, p. 95, pi. 49, fig. 1, 



1846. 

 Heer, Flora fossilis arctica, vol. 3, Abt. 2, p. 96, pi. 26, 



fig. 17a, 1874; vol. 7, p. 6, pi. 58, fig. 4, 1883. 

 Engelhardt, Naturf. Gesell. Isis in Dresden Abh., 



1891, No. 7, p. 86. 

 Kryshtofovich, Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokyo Jour., vol. 



40, art. 8. p. 31, fig. 2, 1918. 



This species was described by Corda in 1846 

 from material obtained in the Cenomanian of 

 Bohemia. It was subscquentlj- recorded from 

 the same horizon in Saxony. Heer referred 

 a number of Greenland specimens to it, and 

 lately Kryshtofovich has recorded it from the 

 Upper Cretaceous of Sakhalin Island. If these 



a Heer, Oswald, Flora fossilis arctica, vol. 1, p. 79, pi. 43, fig. 4, 1868. 



