I 



NOTES ON TRIASSIC PLANTS FROM NEW MEXICO. 

 BY 



Wm. M. Fontaine and F. H. Knowlton. 



(With Plates xxii-xx\i.) 



In 1880 a small collection of fossil plants was made by Maj. J. W. 

 Powell at the Copper Mines near Abiqnin, New Mexico, and dniing 'he 

 ])ast season (1889) the same locality was visited by Prof. F. H. Knowl 

 ton who obtained additional material. The phmt impressions were re- 

 ferred to me by Prof. Lester F. Ward for determination, and sections of 

 the wood obtained have been made and studied by Professor Knowlton. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCALITY. 



The little village of Abirpun stands upon a bluff overlooking the 

 valley of the CbamaKiver, and is about 25 miles northwest of Espa- 

 nola, tbe terminal point of the branch of the Denver and Rio Grande 

 Railrojid, and about .50 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

 The general topographic and geologic features of the surrounding 

 country have been so thoroughly described by Dr. J. S. Newberry, wlio 

 was attached as geologist to the "Exploring Expedition from Santa 

 Fe, New Mexico, to the Junction of the Grand and Green Rivers " 

 under Capt. I. N. Macomb, in 1859, that little remains to be added. 



The copper mines which have been known and worked by the Mexi- 

 cans for a very long time, are about 6 miles northeast of Abiquiu 

 and about 1,000 feet abovethe valley of the Chama. After leaving 

 the ('hama, which on the north side at this point is characterized by 

 a little lateral valley eroded from mostly whitish coarse sandstone 

 probably of Tertiary age, we enter another valley, or rather almost 

 a canon, which has been cut through Triassic rocks. The sides of this 

 cahon exhibit bands of variously colored sandstones, the colors being 

 red, white, yellow or orange, and the strata being nearly horizontal. 



At the top of the mountain a large eroded basin is entered from the 

 southeast. This basin, which according to Newberry drains into the 

 Chama Valley, is about li miles from south to north and 1 mile from 

 east to west, and is surrounded by a wall, in some places nearly verti- 

 cal, between 500 and GOO feet high. This wall is composed at base of 

 sandstones and marls about 200 feet in thickness, above which is a 



Proceedings National Museutu, Vol XIII. —No. 821. 



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