NO. 1873. CHARACTERS OF GTOANTOPTERIS— WHITE. 505 



TJie Texas jiora. — In Texas the major part of the Carboniferous 

 system, as divided by the State geological survey, consists, in 

 ascending order, of Millsap, containing Mississippian invertebrates; 

 Strawn, which includes conglomerates and coals of upper Pottsville 

 (lower Pennsylvanian) age; Canyon, mainly marine calcareous beds; 

 Cisco, a coal-bearing formation from which a very few plants, prob- 

 ably of Monongahela age, have been obtained; Albany, Wichita, 

 Clear Fork, and Double Mountain. The latter is unconformably 

 overlain by the Triassic Dockum formation.^ The Wichita forma- 

 tion has been stratigraphically proven by Adams, Cummins, and 

 Gordon to grade horizontally into the ''Albany," of which it repre- 

 sents at least the upper and greater part, the red and variegated 

 sandstones and shales of the former being gradually replaced to 

 the southward by the limestones of the latter. The general geology 

 of the Wichita formation has been recently summarized by Gordon,- 

 and the history of paleontological discovery and of opinions, which 

 until very recently have been somewhat conflicting, as to the age 

 of the beds, have been well reviewed by Beede.^ The Wichita 

 formation is now regarded by all paleontologists as lower Permian, 

 at least in the broad sense (including Artinsk) in which that term 

 is generally employed in western Europe and America. 



The "breaks" south of Little Wichita River, 4^ miles southeast of 

 Fulda, i. e., the locality from which the Gigantopteris specimens here 

 described were obtained, is some distance above the base of the 

 Wichita, though the interval has not been determined. A stratum 

 in the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway cut 1 mile west of Henrietta, 

 supposed to bo much lower than the Fulda plant bed, yielded a small 

 flora containing Walcliia and Tseniopteris. 



Another locality, "Castle Hollow," 2^ miles south of Fulda, is 

 stratigrapliically so near the level of the main Fulda plant bed that 

 its species will be associated with the others in the following provi- 

 sional list of the fossils. It must, however, be distinctly borne in 

 mind that the identifications in this list are based on a preliminary 

 examination only and that, though of value and interest as closely 

 indicating the character of the flora, they are not in all cases final. 



Preliminary List of the Fossils from the Main Plant Bed {M), and "Castle Hollow" 



(H), near Fulda, Texas. 



Diplothmema, sp.?, M. 

 Pecopteris arborescens, H. 

 Pecopteris hemitelioides, H, M. 

 Pecopteris densifolia? , H. 

 Pecopteris tenuinervis, M. 

 Pecopteris grandifolia, M, H? 



Pecopteris, sp., M. 



Aphlehia, sp., H. 



Odoiitopteris neuropteroideSf M. 



Odontopterls fischeri? M. 



Gigantopteris cimerivana, M., H. 



Neuropteris cf. lindahli, H. 



1 See Cmnmins, Tex. Acad. Sci., 1897, pp. 93- 



>Joiirn. Geol., vol. 19, 1911, p. 110. 



» Kans. Univ. Sci. Bull., vol. 4, No. 3, 1907. 



