TERTIARY FLORA OF CHILE 81 



is undoubtedly mixed with forms from other horizons. The 

 supposed Pliocene marine faunas are found north of Arauco. 

 They are distinctly modern Pacific in facies and have been 

 correlated with the Coquimbo-Caldera beds described by 

 Steinmann and Moricke, which occur farther northward 

 along the Chilean coast. 



Their present position might be taken as indicative that 

 they are older than the late Pliocene Cape Fairweather beds 

 of Patagonia which have been involved in the Andean uplift, 

 in which case they are properly called Pliocene. I have no 

 opinion to offer, but am inclined to doubt that they are so 

 old, because in northern Peru the basis for marine Pliocene 

 seems to me to rest entirely upon mixed collections of Mio- 

 cene and Pleistocene fossils. 



The coal measures are much faulted and the dips are dis- 

 cordant and in the present state of our knowledge do not 

 disclose any major structural units. 



THE FOSSIL FLORA 



The present collections, as previously mentioned, are not 

 extensive. Much of the plant bearing material is in a sand- 

 stone which does not preserve details. The shales, although 

 containing an abundance of leaf impressions are very brittle 

 and slack a great deal this was notably the case at the 

 Puchoco mine. Another obstacle to the securing of good 

 material is that the two most extensive workings, namely 

 those at Lota and Coronel, now dump their waste directly 

 into the Pacific, so that this rich collecting ground is not 

 available. If there were anyone on the ground on the look- 

 out for good material as in the case of the German engineers 

 that obtained the collection studied by Engelhardt, very ex- 

 tensive and excellent collections could be made, as the meas- 

 ures are in place crowded with plants. 



The present collection includes the following species 

 arranged by localities : 



