188G.] 



XEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



135 



The table given below shows at a glance the relative positions 

 of the plant-bearing members of the Cretaceous system in En- 

 rope, Greenland, and North America. 



The lower Cretaceous rocks have everywhere yielded fossil 

 plants having essentially the same character, viz., a great pre- 

 ponderance of cycads, conifers, and ferns; with the addition in 

 the upper portion of the Lower Cretaceous strata of a few angio- 

 sperms, the leaves of which resemble those of poplars. 



In the Wealden and Keocomian of Europe no angiosperms 

 are found. In the G-reenland Kome beds are ferns, conifers, and 

 cycads, with two angiosperms, called Populus by Heer. In the 

 Kootanie and Queen Charlotte beds of Canada, also gymno- 

 sperms, but no broad-leaved plants occur. 



Ph the Potomac clays of Virginia, Professor Fontaine has 

 found apparently the beginnings of the angiospermous flora, a 

 large number of species of cycads, conifers, and ferns, with a few 

 angiosperms. 



In the Mill Creek beds of Dawson, in the Dakota group of 

 Nebraska, and in the Atane beds of Greenland, the remains of 

 -an abundant angiospermous flora have been discovered. And 

 now we have to add to what was before known of this flora, the 



