432 ELEMENTARY GEOLOGY 
By the close of the Cretaceous, land plants have begun 
to assume the characteristics of the present (Fig. 257). 
The ancient tree ferns have begun to disappear, and 
the forests are of palms, pines, and deciduous trees like 
those of the present. Among the deciduous trees there 
Fic. 250. 
Group of Cretaceous fossils. 
(1, Enecrinus liliformis; 2, Exogyra matheromana; 5, Pugnellus densatus; 
4, Cyphosoma texana; 5, Exogyra arietina (oysters) ; 6, Trigonia crenulata.) 
are species of willow, maple, and other types now 
well known. Many of the common flowering plants 
also existed in this period, and the whole development 
of the flora was towards the conditions of the present. 
Little by little the ancient type of plant disappeared, as 
was the case also with the animals, With the develop- 
