PART III. 



THE OLDER MESOZOIC FLORA OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



For the sake of comparing the flora of the older Mesozoic strata of 

 North Carolina with the plants from the beds of similar character in Vir- 

 ginia, I will give in the pages immediately following a brief account of it, 

 taken from Emmons's American Geology, Part VI. I will give Emmons's 

 description of each plant, using his own words, and then compare the 

 described fossils with those from Virginia. It will be more satisfactory to 

 give also the figures published by Emmons, and this I am permitted to do 

 by his heirs. These figures were often drawn from very imperfect speci- 

 mens, and the jjlants represented do not, in all cases, show their true nature 

 until they are compared with more perfect specimens from Virginia. I 

 would have preferred to examine the original specimens, but I find on 

 inquiry that Dr. Emmons's collections of plants were destroyed during the 

 late war. In this account I will omit certain obscure plants, such as Gym- 

 nocaulus, &c , as they have no fixed character and are very uncertain in 

 nature. I would note that some mistakes seem to have been made in re- 

 ferring the descriptions to the plates and figures of Emmons's work, and 

 plate 2, seems to have been omitted from the book, the figures being found . 

 on plate 6. 



Most of Emmons's plants come from above the horizon of the Meso-- 

 zoic coal-beds of North Carolina. Hence, if this coal be on the same- 

 horizon as the Virginia Mesozoic coal, as it probably is, most of the- North 

 Carolina plants must come somewhat higher up in the series of older Meso- 

 zoic strata than those from Virginia. Nearly all of the latter come from the 

 beds immediately associated with the Mesozoic coal of Virginia. 



Emmons gives the following plants as coming from the bituminous 

 shale group that is associated with the coal-beds, viz : Equisetum columna- . 

 roides, Calamites punctatns, Walchia angustifolia, and Sphenopteris Egyptiaca. _ 

 7f 97 



