ANTHRACOLITHIC ROCKS OF KANSAS 131 



then, or at least the members as high as the Greer formation [the base of which 

 is near the top of the Kansas deposits] are of Permian age.^ 



Fossil plants were collected in the Wellington shales^ in the 

 southern part of Dickinson County, which were studied by Dr. 

 Sellards who wrote as follows concerning them: 



There are, in the collections so far made, some twenty-six or twenty-seven 

 determinable species, distributed in fourteen genera. The plants indicate unmis- 

 takably the true Permian age of the formation in which they are found. Mauy 

 of the species are characteristically Permian, and only a very, small proportion of 

 the species identical with Upper Carboniferous species.^ 



Part of this material was communicated to the National Museum 

 by Dr. Sellards and examined by Mr. David White of the United 

 States Geological Survey, who wrote as follows regarding it : 



If the composition of the entire flora proves to be of so young a character as 

 the material described or placed in my hands by Mr. Sellards, his conclusion that 

 the beds are of so late date as the Lower Permian will appear to be fully justified. 

 .... However, such pteridophytic material as has come to me for examination 

 is more nearly typical and characteristic of the Permian than any flora that I have 

 yet seen from another formation in the United States. If the plants preliminarily 

 listed above are representative of the plant life of the Upper Marion or the Welling- 

 ton formation, the flora of these beds is probably of a date fully as late as the 

 earlier of the floras generally referred to the Permian in western Europe. In any 

 event a flora containing these species can hardly be older than the topmost Car- 

 boniferous, or transitional from the Upper Carboniferous to the Permian. '^ 



In January, 1903, Dr. Sellards wrote me as follows: 



The fossil plants in my opinion support your belief in the existence of true 

 Permian in Kansas (below the Red Beds). The flora of the Marion (or Welling- 

 ton) differs specifically almost in toto from that of formations as low down as the 

 Lawrence shales [which occur in the Pennsylvanian near the top of Professor 

 Haworth's Douglas stage] and indicates as I have already stated (Kans. Acad. 

 Sci., 1900; Kans. Univ. Bull., Vol. IX, Jan., 1900) a lower Permian age. The 

 plants in this case are pretty conclusive and the genera and species are identical 

 with or most closely related to those of the lower Permian of Europe. s 



1 Ibid., p. 68. 



2 Stratigraphic identification by Dr. J. W. Beecle, see Am. Jour. Sci., 4th Ser., 

 Vol. XXVII, 1909, p. 169. 



3 Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., Vol. XVII, 1901, p. 209. 



4 U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. 21 1, 1903, p. 117. 



5 Letter of Jan. 12, 1903, and see Am. Geol., Vol. XXXVI, p. 149. 



