[PENHALLOW] OSMUNDITES SKIDEGATENSIS 17 
that similarly there is evidence of an abundant starch deposit in the 
parenchyma tissue of the inner cortex. The figures and description, 
however, are very unsatisfactory, inasmuch as they do not supply the 
details necessary for a close comparison, and in the absence of actual 
examination of the original specimens, it is not possible to establish more 
than a generic resemblance. 
The several species of Osmundites (Osmunda) occurring in North 
America ! are known only by their foliage and fruit, so that no compari- 
son can be made with them at the present time. It is, nevertheless, of 
interest to note that these plants were not only common in Tertiary 
time,” but that they also appear to have been abundant at a somewhat 
earlier period than the Lower Cretaceous,* and the plant which is now 
found in the Lower Cretaceous of Queen Charlotte Islands is, in all 
probability, closely similar to those occurring in the Potomac formation 
of Virginia. It is, however, clear, from the preceding considerations, 
that our present knowledge of these plants will not admit of establishing 
specific relations between the present fossil and those previously recorded. 
With respect to the relations of O. skidegatensis to existing species 
in the same region, nothing can be said, since the genus Osmunda has 
completely disappeared from that locality.* and at the present time it 
does not extend farther west than Manitoba.’ 

1 For a full list of these plants and bibliography, see Knowlton’s Cata- 
logue of Cretaceous and Tertiary Plants of North America. (Bull. U.S. Geol. 
Surv., No. 152, p. 154.) 
7 U.S. Geol. Surv., Tertiary Flora, 60. 
# U.S, Geol. Survey, Potomac Flora, 146, etc. 
* Geol. Surv. of Canada, 1878-79, 222B. 
° Cat. of Canadian Plants (Macoun), 286. 
Sec. IV., 1902. 2. 
