GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 381 



type is the peculiar Ficus (?) fimbriatus, represented by a broad, reni- 

 forui leaf, whose borders are fringed by small, nearly triangular, con- 

 cave protuberances, equally distant from each other, and turned up- 

 wards. 



Out of those few exceptions, the primordial character of the flora, as 

 indicated by the plants enumerated above, is distinctly Northwest 

 American. The list contains species of Liquidambar, Populus. Salix, 

 Betula, Fagus, Quercus, Platanus, Sassafras, Liriodendron, Magnolia, 

 Acer, Rhamnus, Primus, &c. If some of these species may be regarded 

 as of uncertain value, there can be no doubt on their relation to the 

 genera to which they are assigned, all represented in our actual flora. 

 Even the exceptions to this Northwest American character are very 

 few. Besides the now extinct races, like Credneria and JDombeiopsis, we 

 can record only the species of Proteoides as referable to Australian forms, 

 with Phyllocladus, indicating an Eastern Asiatic origin. This last is rep- 

 resented by a single specimen, which, though well preserved, is not suffi- 

 cient to prove generic affinity. As for the genus Cinnamomum, it is so 

 closely related to Sassafras that its nativity could as well be assigned to 

 this country, if it did not have more numerous representatives in the 

 tertiary and cretaceous formations of our western continent, thus indi- 

 cating its origin from Asia, where a number of its species have been 

 preserved to our 'time. 



From all that has been published on the subject, it is fully established 

 that besides its Asiatic types, the original characters of the miocenic 

 flora of Europe are Northwest American. It is not therefore surprising 

 that the first fossil plants of our cretaceous measures should have been 

 considered as miocenic as long as their geological position had not been 

 positively ascertained. But even now, with full evidence afforded to us 

 on the subject, it may be still doubted if the relation of epochs between 

 the plant-bearing strata of Nebraska and those which lay over them 

 and contain cretaceous mollusks is rightly indicated by the fossil re- 

 mains. For as it is now ascertained that at a great depth the present 

 fauna of our seas is related, if not analogous, to the fossil fauna of some 

 cretaceous rocks, the depth at which have been deposited the calcare- 

 ous strata overlaying the sandstone containing our leaves, may have 

 caused what might be called an unconformable development of zoological 

 types. This question is merely hypothetically touched in order to pre- 

 sent it to the attention of geologists and paleontologists. 



SECTION 2. — TERTIARY FOSSIL PLANTS. 



We have first to complete the list of our tertiary fossil plants as it has 

 been done for those of the cretaceous formations. Besides the species 

 described from the specimens of Dr. F. V. Hayden and Dr. Leconte, the 

 following list enumerates a number of others from the tertiary of Missis- 

 sippi. These have been established from specimens furnished by Pro- 

 fessor E. W. Hilgard, mentioned in his geological report of the State 

 of Mississippi,* and hereafter described and figured in Trans. Am. Phil. 

 Soc, as remarked above. Their geological position is not definitively 

 ascertained. They appear referable to the lower tertiary, (the eocene.) 



Species from Mississippi : 

 Calamopsis Danai, Lesqx. 

 Sabal Gray ana, Lesqx. 

 Salisbnria binervata, Lesqx. 



* Report on the Geology and Agriculture of the State of Mississippi, by Eug. W. Hil- 

 gard, (I860,) pp. 108, 109, &c. 



