NO. 1873. CHARACTERS OF GIGANTOPTERIS— WHITE. 495 



DESCRIPTION OF THE FOSSILS. 



Localities. — The American specimens wliicli will be described in 

 this paper come from the Wichita formation of Texas, the exact 

 localit}^ bemg the bank of the stream at the crossing of the old road, 

 one-fourth mile south of the ford of Little Wichita River, 4 miles 

 southeast of Fulda, a station in Baylor County. Here the fronds 

 of Gigantopteris lie mingled with other plants in great profusion in 

 a rather thin layer of bluish-gray friable clay shale about 3 feet 

 above the "fish bed." The latter is a very thin, dark-colored, 

 gnarly, bituminous limestone filled with the bones, spines, dermal 

 plates, etc., of various fish and reptiles. It paves the road-crossing. 

 The plant bed was first discovered by Prof. E. C. Case, of the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan, who, while collecting the vertebrate fossils ^ 

 gathered also a few plant fragments which were kindly communi- 

 cated by him to me for examination. A small collection from this 

 most interesting locality was obtained in 1908 by Prof. C. H. Gordon 

 and myself; and in 1909 I secured from the same locality much 

 good plant material which, however, was largely ruined subsequently 

 by becoming accidentally dampened." On this account this collec- 

 tion was duplicated in 1910. The associated species will be noted, 

 in connection with the discussion of the age of the beds, on a later 

 page. It will suffice at this point to say that Gigantopteris is there 

 mingled in a filicoid flora, mth Pecopteris, Txniopteris, Odontopteris, 

 Walchia, Gomphostrolus, insect ^\dngs, Estheria, and fish scales. 

 So numerous are the plant fragments and so friable and jointed 

 are the clays that it is well nigh impossible to secure large or perfect 

 specimens of the larger plant parts. 



Besides the locality just described the genus has also been found 

 in "Castle Hollow" 2^ miles south of Fulda; in the red sandstones 

 three-fourths mile east of Electra, Texas, the latter locality having 

 been discovered by Prof. Charles N. Gould, to whom geologists are 

 indebted for the greater part of our knowledge of the "Red Beds" 

 of Oklahoma; in the red and green shales above the thin limestone 

 horizon about 4 miles southeast of Electra; near Perry, Oklahoma; 

 in the vertebrate-bearing beds near Eddy, Oklahoma; and near San 

 Angelo, in Tom Green County, Texas. In fact this curious plant 

 is present at nearly every point where vegetable remains have been 

 found in the Wicliita formation or its equivalents in Texas and Okla- 

 homa. Everywhere it is associated with Txniopteris. On account 

 of the very singular aspect and nervation of the leaves small pieces of 

 Gigantopteris have in several instances been temporarily mistaken 

 for fragments of some fish or reptile. 



1 Bull. Ainer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 23, 1907, pp. 659, 665. 



2 The clays shrink and crack badly when dry, and melt to a paste when wet. 



