THE CEETACEOUS FLORA. 211 



FLORA OF THE SHASTA FORMATION. 



Fossil plants have been found in the Shasta beds in both Cahfornia 

 and Oregon. Until recently there was great confusion in the plant- 

 bearing beds of Oregon, as it was not supposed that the Jurassic was 

 found there. As shown in this paper, however, all the specimens from 

 the Buck Mountain region, as well as those from the Cow Creek Valley, 

 near Nichols station, came from the Jurassic. Those, however, from 

 localities farther east, especially from near the town of Puddles, are of 

 Shasta age and will be treated under this head. 



During the progress of the topographic survey of the Red Bluff 

 quadrangle, in Shasta and Tehama counties, Cal., in charge of Mr. Gilbert 

 Thompson, which was made in the years 1882-1884, Mr. Thompson found 

 a plant-bearing bed near Pettyjohn's ranch, on the Cold Fork of Cotton- 

 wood Creek, Tehama County, and collected and sent in a number of 

 specimens. Only one of these, however, seems to have been saved, and 

 this was sent to Prof. Leo Lesquereux, who determined it as a Pecopteris, 

 without assigning to it a specific name. As such it was duly recorded 

 in the catalogue of the National Museum as No. 2193. It was in two 

 parts, completing each other, and these have been glued together. These 

 parts bear Professor' Lesquereux' s numbers 254 and 255. Owing to the 

 obscure chirography of the label, the name of the locality was misspelled 

 in the Catalogue and the attention of the geologists who subsequently 

 studied the beds of this region was not called to it. As soon as the correct 

 name, Pettyjohn's ranch, was known, the specimen, which had long lain 

 in a drawer waiting for data to fix its position in the collections, assumed 

 a special- interest and steps were taken to learn more of its history. It 

 was shown to Mr. Gilbert Thompson, who recognized it at once and 

 chstinctly remembered coUecting it. He indicated the exact locality on 

 the map, which would certainly place it in the Shasta formation and well 

 up in the Horsetown beds near the base of the Chico. The character of 

 the rock agrees well with this and there is nothing remarkable except 

 the fact that the plant seems to represent the chiefly Paleozoic genus 

 Pecopteris. It is a large, distinct fern, wholly unlike any of the others 

 that were collected in that region. It may well have been a tree fern. 

 As Professor Fontaine says, the finer nervation is not shown, and it is 

 still possible that it may belong to some of the Mesozoic genera to which 



