288 FLORA OF LOWER COAL MEASURES OF MISSOURL 



that the flora from ^Missouri is not, as a whole, older than the Morris coal, 

 while a large proportion, more than one-half, of the species are to be found 

 in the Middle or Upper Kittanniiig- coal of western Pennsylvania. For, 

 witli the exception of the obscure fragment which may possibly belong to 

 S])lienopteris Hoeningliausii, the two specimens of a new species of Pseudo- 

 2)ecopteris, and the solitary fragmental impression somewhat doubtfully 

 referred to Lepidodendron clypeatum, there is not, I believe, in all the 

 material before me a specimen in any degree characteristic of or usually 

 limited to the Pottsville series. Extensive collections of the jDlants from 

 the latter series in Avestern Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Virginias, Kentucky, 

 and Tennessee, are now imder examination. The flora of the uppermost 

 beds of this series in the anthracite regions in eastern Pennsyh-ania, is, 

 however, largely iinknown. It is certain that the exceedingl}' slight Potts- 

 ville element, which is astonishingly small when we consider the local strati- 

 graphic position of the coals, is no greater than that found in the coal at 

 Morris, Illinois, although the stratigraphic interval between the latter and 

 the ]\Iillstone grit or Pottsville is much greater and more uniform. The 

 coals with the fine clays and shales in Henry County, Missouri, are seldom 

 over 100 feet above the Lower Carboniferous terranes, while in some 

 instances the lower coal appears to rest on the eroded surface of the latter. 

 On the other hand, a great part of the flora under consideration lies on 

 the other side of the 3Iorris coal, in the direction of the Kittanning horizons 

 of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Thiis, in e^ddence of a later age for our flora 

 we find a number of types of a generalh^ higher range than the flora of 

 Morris and Mazon Creek, apparently higher than the plants from the Brook- 

 ville and Clarion coals in the western Pennsylvania region, and far higher 

 than the A and B coals of the Northern Anthracite field. The presence of 

 some of the younger types, especially the representatives of some of the 

 later species of Pecopteris, in our flora is of far greater importance than 

 mere numerical ratios. And, if we take the testimonjr of these elements 

 into consideration, we can only conclude that, while the j^reponderant 

 identity of the vegetation under examination is found near the horizon of 

 the Morris coal in Illinois, it can not, as a whole, be of quite so early a 

 date. The intimate relations of the Missouri plants, especially of the later 

 tvpes unknown in the stage of the Morris coal, with those of the Darlington 

 coal point strongly to a stratigraphic position for the synchronous beds in 



