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UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



The material brought back by the University of Colorado Expedition 

 of 1909 includes the following recognizable species: 



1. From three miles south of Axial, in light reddish rock, collected by Terry Duce. 

 This is considered to be about the middle of the Mesa Verde formation. 

 Geinitzia reichenbachi (Geinitz) Hollick and Jeffrey. A remarkable piece of 



stem, herewith figured (Fig. 13). It has a diameter of 13 mm., and as may be 

 seen from the figure, has an extraordinary resemblance to many of the Palaeo- 

 zoic Lycopodiaceous stems, as for instance Ulodendron minus Lindley and 

 Hutton. As it was difficult to imagine what a plant of this type could be 

 doing in the Cretaceous, I turned to the conifers, and found at once consider- 

 able resemblance even to the living genus Araucaria. At this point I con- 

 sulted Professor A. C. Seward, who kindly wrote giving a number of pertinent 

 references, the most significant being those to Fontaine's Potomac Flora 

 (Monog. XV, U. S. Geol. Survey, 1889). Here I found (Plate CXIX, f. 5) a 

 fragment of a similar stem figured, and referred to Sequoia reichenbachi 

 (Geinitz) Heer. This at once connected with the fact that Knowlton records 

 S. reichenbachi, on foliage characters, from four localities in the Mesa Verde. 

 Hollick and Jeffrey (Mem. N.Y. Bot. Garden, III, 1909, p. 38) have lately 

 shown that 5. reichenbachi is no Sequoia, but a member of the Araucarinean 

 genus Geinitzia. Whether the Mesa Verde plant and numerous others from 

 different localities and formations are correctly ascribed to a single species, 

 G. reichenbachi, may be held at least doubtful. In all probability several 

 distinct species are represented, but in the absence of proof we must follow 

 the current usage of authors. The resemblance of this Araucarian Conifer 

 to a Lycopodiaceous plant of an earlier period is especially significant in 

 view of the probability that there exists a real relationship between these 

 groups. A full and luminous discussion of this question has been given by 

 Mr. A. C. Seward and Miss S. O. Ford in the Philosophical Transactions of 

 the Royal Society, Series B, Vol. 198, pp. 385-98. 



2. From the upper plant horizon, N. W. of Blythe's house, 4 miles west of Meeker, 

 collected by Messrs. Henderson, Blythe and Kyser. 



Myrica torreyi Lx. Very characteristic; submarginal vein more distant from 

 margin than in the original type. 



Geonomites goldianus Lx. Large pieces. 



Sabalites grayanus Lx. This is recorded from the Mesa Verde by Knowlton 

 with a query. Our specimen, kindly presented by Mr. W. B. Blythe, is well 

 preserved, though imperfect, and is herewith figured (Fig. 14) ; it very likely 

 represents a species distinct from the original type of S. grayanus, but it may 

 very well be included in the species as it has been currently understood. A 

 large specimen, also imperfect, was donated to the university by Mr. J. L. 



