210 



MESOZOIC FLORAS OF UNITED STATES. 



Report of Progress of the Geological Survey of Canada for the year 1872-73, 

 page 56ff. It is followed (pp. 66-71) by a description of the fossil plants 

 by Sir William Dawson. They consisted of coniferous wood, referred to 

 the genera Cupressinoxylon and Taxoxylon, and one cycadaceous fruit 

 which was named Cycadeocarpus {Dioonites) columbianus Dn., the last of 

 which was illustrated by a number of magnified sections. 



In 1880 Dr. G. M. Dawson published an elaborate report on the 

 Geology of the Queen Charlotte Islands." Considerable collections of 

 fossil plants had been made at that date and continued to be made 

 thereafter. In 1902 Prof. D. P. Penhallow'' described and figured in great 

 detail a fossil fern, Osmundites skidegatensis Penh. n. sp., collected by Dr. 

 C. F. Newcombe on Skidegate Inlet, Alliford Bay, Queen Charlotte Islands, 

 and in the same volume " he published a somewhat full account of the fossil- 

 plant material brought together by Sir William Dawson, including the 

 following species from the Queen Charlotte Islands : 



Osmundites skidegatensis Penh. 

 Neuropteris heterophylla Brongn. 

 Tseniopteris plumosa Dn. 

 Sagenopteris Nilsoniana (Brongn.) Ward. 

 Sagenopteris oblongifolia Penh. n. sp. 

 Sagenopteris elhptica Font. 



Zamites crassinervis Font. 

 Zamites tenuinervis Font. 

 Nilsonia polymorpha cretacea Penh. n. 



var. 

 Ginkgo pusilla Dn. 

 Sequoia Langsdorfii (Brongn.) Heer. 



His only figures are of internal structure, vvhich does not usually give 

 specific characters, and only three of the species are even thus illustrated. 

 Some of the names are prima facie doubtful, e. g., Neuropteris heterophylla 

 and Sagenopteris Nilsoniana, the first a Carboniferous species, and the 

 other Older Mesozoic. These at least should be figured, that one may 

 judge better of the age of the formation. His Nilsonia polymorpha 

 cretacea, which he calls a new combination, but which seems to be a new 

 variety of his own, is also doubtful. He cites the figure in Schimper's 

 Atlas, pi. xlv, fig. 6 (copied from Schenk's Flora d. Grenzschichten, pi. 

 xxix, fig. 11), from the Rhetic of Franconia. If he has such a leaf it is 

 strong evidence of at least Jurassic age. 



a Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress for 1878-79, Montreal, 1880, pp. 1-239B. 

 6 Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Sect. IV, Vol. VIII, pp. 3-29, pi. i-vi (=pp. 19-29). 

 c Pages 31-91, pi. vii-xvi (=pp. 73-91). 



