OF THE LARAMIE FORMATION OF CANADA. 33 
Of the plants found in the Laramie itself only the following occur in the lower divi- 
sion, those marked with asterisks being found in both divisions :— 
* Onoclea sensibilis, Linn, 
* Lemna scutata, Dawson. 
* Phragmites, Sp- 
* Scirpus, Sp. 
* Sapindus aflinis, Newberry. 
Æsculus antiqua, Dawson, 
*Trapa borealis, Heer. 
Carpolithes. 
This little flora bespeaks aquatic conditions not favorable to the preservation of land 
plants, but showing that exogenous trees, akin to those of the Upper Laramie above and 
the Cretaceous below, existed. It may be hoped that within our district some locality 
more prolific in plants may be discovered. The Lower Laramie would seem to correspond 
with some of the localities in the United States referred by Lesquereux to his first or oldest 
Tertiary series, though, as already stated, the beds hold remains of Saurians of Cretaceous 
aspect. 
The Upper Laramie flora is decidedly richer, including all the other species described 
in this paper. Its plants are in the main identical with those of the Fort Union group 
of the United States geologists, which it would seem that Lesquereux still holds to be of 
Middle Tertiary age, along with those of the Bad Lands of Dakota and of Carbon, and 
with the so-called Miocene of Alaska, Greenland and Mackenzie River, as described by 
Heer. To this I cannot agree. The evidence of stratigraphy and fossils seems to refer all 
these to the Eocene period. If with Lesquereux we regard the Lower Laramie flora as 
Lower Eocene, and corresponding to that of Sesanne in Europe, then the Upper Laramie 
will be Middle or Upper Eocene. If on the other hand the Lower Laramie be regarded as 
the highest member of the Cretaceous, the Upper Laramie may be Lower Eocene. In the 
meantime I cannot help believing that, notwithstanding the large amount of material 
collected, and the valuable work done by the palæobotanists of the United States Geolo- 
gical Survey, there is still some confusion in the arrangement of the successive floras 
which may require revision in the future. 
With this third paper I close for the present my sketches of the Cretaceous and Early 
Tertiary floras of Canada. I have been induced to leave for a time my favourite Paleozoic 
plants, and to notice the collections made in the less ancient formations of the west, by 
the intrinsic interest of the subject, by the wish to trace up the vegetable kingdom in its 
later stages, and by the belief that some misunderstandings existed which the distinct 
sequence of formations in this country might clear up. 
The material at my disposal has been from several horizons well fixed by geological 
work, and thus, though not in itself large, its study has I think been fruitful of important 
results ; and when in future the flora of the several successive formations from the Lower 
Cretaceous to the Eocene shall have been more fully worked out, though what I have 
been able to do in the infancy of collection in these regions, may be eclipsed by the rich 
additions which will be made, it will I think be found that a good foundation has been 
laid for the understanding of the true succession of vegetable life from the earlier Creta- 
ceous onward. 
Sec. IV., 1886. 5. 
