PALEONTOLOGY 



By Edward Drinker Cope 



Professor of Mineralogy and Geology, University of Pennsylvania. 



^i^^^OTH in its quarto and octavo publications the 

 Smithsonian Institution has made important 

 contributions to the Hterature of the science 

 of paleontology. A number of able paleontol- 

 ogists have been associated with it, and since 

 the establishment of the United States Geological Survey, its 

 paleontologists have been among the honorary curators of the 

 United States National Museum. 



The publications of the Smithsonian Institution concerning 

 the fossil flora of the United States date from 1882. The 

 first works issued were Lesquereux' " Miocene Flora of 

 Alaska" and Newberry's "Tertiary Fossil Plants from West- 

 ern North America," both of which appeared in the " Proceed- 

 ings of the United States National Museum " for that year. 

 Lesquereux' descriptions and determinations of the material 

 then in the National Museum were published from 1887 to 

 1890, inclusive. It was at this time, also, that Frank H. 

 Knowlton's interesting studies in paleobotany were issued in 

 a series of papers, beginning in 1888. The first of these re- 

 lates to material which came from the vicinity of P'ort Win- 



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