212 



THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



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Laramie with the Upper Cretaceous of Vancouver Island 

 and the Faxoe and Maestricht beds of Europe, while he 

 regards the Upper Laramie as equivalent to European 

 Eocene. Excej^t in so far as the equivalence of the 

 Lower Laramie and Vancouver Island beds is concerned, 

 this corresponds very nearly witli the conclusions of the 

 writer in a paper published last year * — namely, that we 

 must either regard the Laramie as a transition Cretaceo- 

 Eocene group, or must institute our line of separation in 

 the Willow Creek or Middle Laramie division, which has, 

 however, as yet afforded no fossil plants. I doubt, how- 

 ever, the equivalence of the Vancouver beds and the 

 Lower Laramie, except erhaps in so far as the upper 

 member of the former is concerned. I have also to ob- 

 serve that in the latest report of Mr. Lesquereux he still 

 seems to retain in the Miocene certain formations in the 

 West, which from their fossil plants I should be inclined 

 to regard as Eocene, f 



Two ferns occurring in these beds are remarkable as 

 evidence of the persistence of species, and of the pecul- 

 iarities of their ancient and modern distribution. Onoclea 

 sensibilis, the very common sensitive fern of eastern 

 America, is extremely abundant in the Laramie beds over 

 a great area in the West. Mr. Starkie Gardner and Dr. 

 Newberry have also shown that it is identical with the 

 Filicites Hehridicus of Forbes, from the early Eocene beds 

 of the Island of Mull, in Scotland. Thus we have a 

 species once common to Europe and America, but now 

 restricted to the latter, and which has continued to exist 

 over all the vast ages between the Cretaceous and the 

 present day. In the Laramie beds I have found asso- 



* " Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada," vol. ii. 



f While these sheets were going through the press I receivecl a very 

 valuable report of Mr. Lester F. Ward upon the Laramie of the United 

 States. I have merely had time to glance at this report, but can see that 

 the views of the author agree closely with those above expressed. 



