WARi>.] EXPLANATION OF THE TABLE OF DISTRIBUTION. 441 



because it is the group under immediate consideration, the Senonian 

 next, because lowest, and Ijecause it is to its flora that it is especially 

 desired to direct attention ; the Eocene properly coming last. The first 

 subdivision of the Laramie is intended to cover all the beds recognized 

 by Mr. Lesciuereux as belonging to that group. The Carbon and Evans- 

 ton coal beds, excluded by him, follow, the two columns covering all 

 the plants from the ceutral and southern areas, the third being reserved 

 for those of the northern districts, generally included under the name 

 of Fort Union group. To this latter group, as undoubtedly belonging 

 ' to a still more northern extension of it, I have assigned the species 

 named by" Sir J. W. Dawson,' as having been found in the Laramie of 

 the British Provinces. These I have distinguished by the letters B. A. 

 and the frequent coincidence of these letters with the regular sign for 

 the species sufBciently attests the correctness of this conclusion. Most 

 of the interrogation points occurring in this column represent cases 

 where the fossils have been reported from the localities denominated 

 " Six miles above Spring Canon, near Fort Ellis, Montana," " Yellow- 

 stone Lake," " Elk Creek," and " Snake Kiver." These plants are all 

 classed by Mr. Lesquereux in his first and lowest grouj), or true Laramie, 

 but upon careful investigation I am tolerably well satisfied that they 

 belong to the Fort Union deposits. Their northern position and the 

 known fact that these deposits extend far up the Yellowstone and Mis- 

 souri Rivers would naturally favor this view, but it is the internal 

 evidence afforded by the species themselves which is most convincing. 

 A large proportion of the forms from this locality are also found in the 

 true Fort Union beds and among these occurs Flatanus nohilis, other- 

 wise wholly characteristic of these beds. It is true that one species of 

 Ficus and one palm occur here, but the genus Ficus is no longer ex- 

 cluded from the Fort Union group, while the occurrence of palms in 

 that group has been recognized from the first. 



The several acknowledged upper Cretaceous beds enumerated on a 

 previous page are each given a separate column, and five of the most 

 characteristic Eocene localities are also thus distinguished, the sixth 

 column being devoted to several less important and some outlying beds 

 referred to that age. In the last column the several localities which 

 have been set off by some authors from the true Eocene and classed as 

 Paleocene are grouped together. The principal beds of this class are 

 the Travertines of the Lac de Eilly near Suzanne, to the east of Paris; 

 the supra-lignitic deposits about Soissons, the " Sables de Bracheux;" 

 and the so-called "Marnes Heersiennes" of Gelinden, all situated in 

 Northern France and adjacent Belgian territory and immediately join- 

 ing the only slightly lower Maestricht deposits. 



The three broader columns which complete the body of the table 



' On the Cretaceous and Tertiary Floras of British Columbia and the Northwest 

 Territory. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1883, pp. 15-34, PI. I-VIII 

 (see list of Laramie plants on page 32). 



