GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 301 



ters, and the question becomes still more pressing when the examination 

 of paleontologists bears upon remains of a genus which indicates for each 

 species in the living state the greatest diversity in the forms, even in the 

 nervation of its leaves. I will not repeat what I have said formerly* 

 concerning the specification of A^egetable fossil remains, but merely 

 remark that we have to deal with characters which, though unreliable, 

 must be admitted and described according to the general rules of scien- 

 tific descriptions, and cannot for each of these characters take into 

 account the possibilities of variations^ except when they are in some 

 way indicated by intermediate forms. In this particular case, it is right 

 to say : that the leaves representing the different species above named 

 are grouped upon different specimens, each group presenting the same 

 characters; and that these characters do not show any transitional form 

 from one species to the other. 



Platanus, undeterminable species. In fragments. One of the speci- 

 mens bears large pieces of bark with exuded matter, like glomerules 

 of amber. 



CmNAMOMUM, (!) species. Brokenfragmentsof large leaves, broadly oval 

 and rounded at the base, lanceolate to a point, (?) (brokea;) texture of the 

 leaves thin or not coriaceous; lateral veins slightly curved in ascending 

 to three-fourths of the leaves, moderately branching outside; medial 

 oerve piunately branching from the middle upward. This species 

 appears related to Cinnamomum Seerii, Lsqx., of the Mississippi Ter- 

 tiary, and also to the large forms of Cmnamo^num polymo7'])Mim, Heer. 



23. Cretaceous Strata, Kansas. 



Specimens communicated by Professor B. F. Mudge, on hard, ferru- 

 ginous sandstone. 



Bemarlc. — As the following species have been figured for a detailed re- 

 port of the fossil plants obtained from the explorations of Dr. P. Y. Hay- 

 den, a short description of them finds its i)lace in this paper, though the 

 specimens have been collected by Professor B. P. Mudge, of Manhattan 

 College, Kansas, and kindly sent for examination. ■ These specimens are, 

 indeed, beautiful, representing whole leaves, fully preserved in their 

 outline and in the details of their nervation. They add to our knowl- 

 edge of the extinct floras a number of remarkable forms, interesting to 

 paleontologists, not only by their characters, but especially as afford- 

 ing new data for the study of the species and of the distribution of the 

 Cretaceous flora on both continents. 



Pterospermites quadratus, sp. nov. A large leaf, round, quad- 

 rate in outline, 5 to 9 inches both wayy, with' entire, more or less wavy 

 borders, round truncate to the base, obtusely short-pointed; medial 

 nerve round and thick, overlapped at its base by the borders of the 

 leaves, jiassing it by about half an inch; inferior secondary veins, nar- 

 row, somewhat flabellate around the base of the medial nerve, or diverg- 

 ing in right angles from it; first pair of opposite secondary veins, half an 

 inch above the base of the medial nerve, strong, diverging at an open 

 angle, much branching downward ; nerviiles deeply marked, becoming 

 thicker in contact to thC' secondary veins, nearly continuous; substance 

 of the leaves, coriaceous. From the first pair of opposite secondary 

 veins, the others, in ascending, are nearly parallel, equidistant, passing 

 obliquely to the borders, scarcely curved, craspedodrome, as in all the 

 species of this genus. By its nervation this species is related to P. deii- 

 tatus, Heer, (PL Arc, I, p. 138, Pl. 23, Pig. 6.) 



* American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xlv, p. 103, note. 



