288 
seven species are recorded as identical with European Miocene species. 
If we count in each case the plants that were supposed to be closely re- 
lated to the European species, but not identics1, we find twenty-five in the 
Sézanne column and thirty three in the Miocene column. Adding the 
identical and the related species in each case it is seen that there are in 
the Sézanne column twenty-eight species. sixty in the Miocene column. 
Therefore, it becomes difficult to understand how Professor Lesquereux 
derived his conclusion from his premises. What his table really proved 
was that the Laramie deposits belong to the Miocene. Had Cope and 
other paleontologists examined the table itself, instead of accepting the 
author’s statement regarding it, they would either have distrusted the evi- 
dence from the plants more than they did or would have concluded that 
the dinosaurs ranged up into the Miocene. 
It is not to be supposed that all paleobotanists accepted Lesquereux’s 
views. These views were strongly opposed, especially by Newberry, as 
early as 1874 and as late as 1889. The following is quoted from New- 
berry (Trans. N. Y., Acad. Sci., ix, 1889, p. 28): 
If Prof. Cope had not accepted Mr. Lesquereux’s conclusion in regard 
to the age of the deposit [at Black Buttes], and had recognized the fact 
that there are no Tertiary plants in the true Laramie, he would have seen 
that there is no discrepancy between the testimony of the plant and animal 
remains. 
It is to be taken into consideration here that Newberry believed that 
the Laramie was directly overlain by the Fort Union. The latter beds 
have usually been regarded as belonging to the Hocene. However, the fol- 
lowing may be quoted from Lester F. Ward, who had studied especially 
collections of plants from the Fort Union deposits (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer.. 
i, 1890, p. 531) : 
In fact, the material from the Fort Union formation which is still in 
my hands inclines me to believe that there would really be, as I then stated, 
no inconsistency in assigning to the Fort Union an age as ancient as the 
closing period of the Cretaceous system. 
6. THe COMPLETENESS OF ReEcorD OF ANIMAL Life AS COMPARED WITH 
THAT OF PLANT LIFE. 
There is, in the present state of knowledge, a great contrast between 
the incompleteness of the plant record above the Fox Hills formation and 
the fullness of the animal record. Plants are abundant throughout the 
