CHAPTER VII 



PALEONTOLOGY. 



SECTION 1. -THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE DENVER 15ASIN. 



1?y F. 11. Knowlton. 



HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF WORK ON THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE DENVER 



BASIN. 



So far as I have been able t<> learn, the first collection <>t* fossil plants 

 from the Denver Basin was made by Dr. John L. LeConte in the year 18G7, 

 while attached as geologisl to the survey for the extension of the liiion 

 Pacific Railway from Smoky Hill River, Kansas, to the Rio Grande. 1 lie 

 made a somewhat hastj trip from Trinidad to Denver for the purpose of 

 investigating the coal mines in the vicinity of Denver. In the beds of clay 

 just below the coal at Marshall's, on South Boulder Creek, he found a large 

 number of impressions of Leaves. These were submitted to Prof. Leo 

 Lesquereux, but they were so fragmentary that he was only able to make 

 generic determinations. 



In March, L868, Dr. F. V". Ilayden published an article on the Lignite 

 deposits of the West, 2 in which he tpioted a letter from Professor Les- 

 quereux containing descriptions of lit species of plants from .Marshall's 

 mine and of 2 species from the Lignite beds near Golden. The name of 

 the collector of these plants, of which no fewer than Sunt of the [2 species 



wen- regarded as new, was not given, but in Lesquereux's Tertiary Flora 

 they are accredited to Dr. Ilayden. It is probable that they were collected 

 by him in the tall of L867. 



Notes on tln< Geology of the Sun ej for the Extension of the Union Paoific Railway, E. 1>., 1'roui 

 tln< Smokj Hill River, Kansas, to the Rio Grande, Phila., Fob., 1868, \>\>. 17-53. 

 'Am. Jour. Soi., 2d series, Vol. XLV, 1868, pp. L98-208. 

 166 



