FLORA OF THE CHEYENNE SANDSTONE OF KANSAS. 



205 



atum Lesquereux, Sequoia coiulita Loscjuereux, 

 Abietites ernestinae Lcscjuercux, Sterculia mu- 

 cronata Lcsciucreux, and Sassafras muihjii 

 Les<iucrcux. Of these the first two were found 

 near Delphos, Kans. ; Sequoia condita, one of 

 the most abundant forms in the Chovonne 

 sandstone, was ivnown simply from '"Kansas" 

 and might really have come originally from the 

 Cheyenne sandstone; Abietites ernestinae was 

 from Decatur, Nebr. ; Sterculia mucronata was 

 from Ellsworth County, Kans.; and Sassafras 

 mudgii was recorded from Salina River, Kans., 

 and Evans quarry, S. Dak. According to 

 Stanton the outcrops of the Dakota sandstone 

 at Delphos, in Ellsworth County, and along 

 Salina River, in Kansas, and at Decatur, Nebr., 

 are in the upper part of the Dakota, the beds 

 at Decatur being within 300 feet of the top. 

 Hence the species -common to these localities 

 tend to emphasize the transitional character 

 of the Cheyenne flora. 



Five of the remaining six species common to 

 the Dakota are of still more value in that they 

 have all been recorded from other regions 

 where the age is less a matter of doubt. The 

 sixth, Asplenium (licksonianurn Heer, is of 

 slight value in this connection, as it is probably 

 a composite species. It has been recorded 

 from both older and younger formations, 

 namely, Tuscaloosa, Raritan, Patapsco, La- 

 kota, Kome, Atane, Kootenai, and the Upper 

 Cretaceous of Sakhalin Island. Gleichenia nor- 

 denskioldi was described originally from mate- 

 rial collected in the Kome beds of Greenland 

 and identified by Lesquereux in specimens 

 from the Dakota at Fort Ilarker, Kans. I 

 have identified the Cheyenne sandstone speci- 

 mens as this species because they are identical 

 with those described under tliat name by Les- 

 quereux, but neither these nor Lesc^uereux's 

 specimens can be distinguished from another of 

 Heer's nominal species of Gleichenia, namely, 

 Gleichenia zippei, which has been recorded all 

 over the Northern Hemisphere at horizons 

 ranging from Lower Cretaceous to Senonian 

 and has been found in the Atlantic Coastal 

 Plain in the Raritan and Magothy formations. 

 Abietites lougifolius ranges through the Poto- 

 mac group of Maryland and \'irginia and is 

 found in the Raritan formation in New Jersey 

 and in the Fuson formation of the Black Hills. 

 Saptndopsis niai/nifol/a is a Patapsco species, 

 Sterculia towneri (Lesquereux) is found in the 



Magothy formation, and Araliopsoides cretacea 

 (Newberry) is found in the Raritan and Mag- 

 othy formations of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. 

 A prominent element in the Cheyenne 

 sandstone flora consists of the three nominally 

 distinct species of Sapindopsi.s, which are 

 e(|ually i)rominent in the Patapsco foimation 

 of Maryland and Virginia. One of these is also 

 probably present in the true (later) Dakota 

 flora, and another has been recorded from the 

 Fuson formation of the Black Hills, although 

 the latter is not entirely characteristic. This 

 considerable Patapsco element in the Cheyenne 

 flora is of considerable interest, for it includes, 

 in addition to the abundant remains of these 

 three species of Sapindopsis, a characteristic 

 Abietites (A. longifolius) . These three forms 

 of Sapindopsis are distinguished chiefly by the 

 size of their leaflets and probably in both floras 

 represent slight variartts of a single botanic 

 sj)ecies. 



The Patapsco flora has been rather definitely 

 correlated with the Albian stage of Europe." 

 I do not regard the community of Sapindopsis 

 and Abietites in the Cheyenne and Patapsco as 

 indicating s\'nchroneity, for the folk)wing 

 reasons. The Patapsco flora contains 41 

 species that persist into it from the older Lower 

 Cretaceous. Only one of these, the Abietites, 

 occurs in the Cheyenne, and it is also present 

 in the Atane beds of Greenland and the Raritan 

 formation of New Jersey. The Patapsco flora 

 immbers S3 species, and of this large number 

 only two have been found in the immediately 

 overlying Raritan formation. Neither of these 

 occurs in the Cheyenne. 



The Cheyenne entirely lacks the older 

 elements that serve to distinguish the Patapsco 

 from the Raritan and stamp its age as Albian. 

 For example, the following fern genera of the 

 Patapsco are not found in the Cheyenne: 

 Ihiffordia, Acrostichopttris, KnowUonella, C'lado- 

 phlebis, Dryopteris, OnychiopsL^, Sagenopteris, 

 Tempsl-ya, Scleropteris, and TJiinnfeldia; the 

 following cycadophyte genera of the Patapsco 

 are not found in the Cheyenne: Ctenopteris, 

 Zamiopsis, Nilsonia, Zamites, Dichotoza mites, 

 and Podozamitts; and the following conifero- 

 phyte genera of the Patapsco are not found 

 in the Cheyenne: Nageiopsis, Brachyphyllum, 

 Araucarites, Pinus, Frenelopsis, Sphenolepis, 



" Berry, E. W., Maryland Geol. Sur\-ey, Lower Cretaceous, p. 172, 

 19n. 



