358 MESOZOIC FLORAS OF UNITED STATES. 



dicotyledons, about which he had written me, for my inspection. In 

 the fall of the same year I prepared a paper on Mesozoic Dicotyledons." 

 Having seen these forms from the Older Potomac, which I fully believed 

 to represent ancestral dicotyledons, I inserted in this paper the following 

 paragraph : 



It is to be hoped that we aje at last approacliing the beginning, at least, of a 

 solution of this truly great problem of the origin of the dicotyledons. I have myself 

 seen at least one slight, it may be, but very interesting sign of possible progress in 

 this direction. Certam quite defective, but very instructive, specimens collected 

 in the upper Jurassic of Virginia by Prof. William M. Fontaine, which he kindly 

 brought to Washington for my inspection, certainly possess all the essential ele- 

 ments of dicotyledonous leaves, although at the same time bearing a certain recog- 

 nizable stamp of the cryptogamic and gymnospermous vegetation that character- 

 izes that earlier age. What is to be the final verdict of science upon these forms 

 can not now be told, but it is to be hoped that the Mesozoic strata, not only in 

 Virginia, but in all parts of the world, may be diligentlj^ searched and the mate- 

 rials carefully studied with a view to discovering these certainly merely "missing 

 hnks " of a chain that can but have been once complete (see pp. .302-30.3). 



In order that Professor Fontaine might more advantageously 

 prosecute his researches and that the results might be published by 

 the United States Geological Survey, arrangements were made by which 

 he was attached to the staff of the Survey, and from that time forward 

 his work was regularly reported by him. His first administrative report 

 appeared in the Sixth Annual Report of the Survey (pp. 85-86), which 

 bears date 1885, and gives an account of his manner of collecting these 

 fossils. In this report he refers to one already submitted giving a 

 detailed account of the geological relations worked out by him. The 

 publication of this report was long delayed, but appeared in 1896, and 

 will be treated under that date (see p. 393). 



On June 9, 1885, I received instructions from the Director of the 

 Survey to make investigations in the Younger Mesozoic of Virginia, 

 and soon commenced field operations. About the same date Professor 

 Fontaine submitted the manuscript and drawings of his work on the 

 formation, for publication by the Survey, and it devolved upon me to 

 edit the same. 



On July 27, 1885, a reconnaissance of the formation was com- 

 menced, the party consisting of Mr. McGee, Professor Fontaine, and 



a Am. Journ. Sci., 3d Ser., Vol. XXVII, April, 1884, pp. 292-303. 



