CERATOPS beds' OF WYOMING AND MONTANA 291 



characterized by an abundance of dicotyledons, as belonging to a vast 

 intermediate period which he called Cretaceo-Eocene. Speaking of 

 the evidence for such an intermediate period he says: "Taking the 

 floras of Cretaceous age in England, whose horizon is absolutely 

 known, we see that they point to an even greater interval (between Cre- 

 taceous and Tertiary) than the fauna. Of course I leave out of the 

 question the so-called Upper Cretaceous floras of Europe whose 

 age, not based upon stratigraphic evidence, is even more a matter of 

 doubt than those of America. 



Later Gardner'^ again questioned the Cretaceous age of the Dakota 

 flora. The following quotation has a bearing on the present discus- 

 sion: 



The Cretaceous series of America contains at its very base a flora 

 composed of angiosperms so perfectly differentiated that they are 

 apparently referable to existing genera. One of the oldest floras in 

 Europe containing angiosperms is that of Aix-la-Chapelle, and even 

 this we have seen is relatively modern; but these are not referable in at 

 all an equal degree to existing genera, and even the coniferae are embar- 

 rassing on account of their highly transitional character. The oldest 

 Cretaceous flora" of America so far from possessing any Cretaceous 

 characters, agrees in a remarkable manner with that of the English 

 Lower Eocene, while the Laramie, or supposed Cretaceo-Eocene, flora 

 has very much in common with that of our Middle Eocene, and marks 

 a similarly sudden rise in temperature. 



Gardner's views on the relationships of the Dakota and Laramie 

 floras are presumably not now held by any paleobotanist. His 

 statements are quoted here merely for the purpose of emphasizing the 

 fact that in Europe there is no well-established standard series of 

 Upper Cretaceous floras with which comparisons can be made and 

 that too little is known about the geologic relations of the Arctic 

 American floras to make them available for that purpose. It is prob- 

 able that the most complete succession of Cretaceous and Tertiary 

 floras in the world is preserved in the rocks of the United States and 

 Canada, and when these are fully studied in all their biologic and 

 stratigraphic relations they will form the standard for comparison and 

 correlation. 



** On the relative ages of the American and English Cretaceous and Eocene 

 series, Abstracts in Nature, Vol. XXX, 1884, pp. 538-529. Rept. Brit. 

 Assoc. Adv. Sci., Montreal, 1884, pp. 739-741. 



°* The Dakota flora was the oldest known at that time. 



