Appendix D. 



REPORT ON FOSSIL PLANTS. 



by lester f. ward. 



Department of the Interior, 

 United States Geological Survey, 



Washington, D. C, March 12, 1891. 

 Mr. I. C. Russell, 



United States Geological Survey. 



My Dear Sir : The following report upon the small collection of fossil 

 plants made by you at Pinnacle pass, near Mount St. Elias, Alaska, and 

 sent to this division for identification has been prepared by Professor F. 

 H. Knowlton, who gave the collection a careful study during my absence 

 in Florida. Previous to going away I had somewhat hastily examined 

 the specimens and seen that they consisted chiefly of the genus Salix, 

 some of them reminding me strongly of living species. I have no doubt 

 that Professor Knowlton's more thorough comparisons can be relied upon 

 with as much confidence as the nature of the collection will permit, and I 

 also agree with his conclusions. 



" The collection consists of seven small hand specimens, upon which are 

 impressed no less than seventeen more or less completely preserved dicoty- 

 ledonous leaves. 



" These specimens at first sight seem to rei^resent six or eight species, 

 but after a careful study I think I am safe in reducing the number to four, 

 as several of the impressions have been nearly obliterated by prolonged 

 exposure and cannot be studied with much satisfaction. 



" The four determinable species belong, without much doubt, to the 

 genus Saliv. Number 1, of which there is but a single specimen, I have 

 identified with Salix californica, Lesquereux, from the auriferous gravel 

 deposits of the Sierra Nevada in California.* The finer nervation of the 

 specimens from the auriferous gravels is not clearly shown in Lesquereux's 

 figures, nor is it well preserved in the Mount St. Elias specimens ; but the 

 size, outline, and primary nervation are identical. 



" Number 2, of which there are six or eight specimens, may be com- 

 pared with Salix raeana, Heer,t a species that was first described from 

 Greenland and was later detected by Lesquereux in a collection from 

 Cooks inlet, Alaska.^ The Mount St. Elias specimens are not very much 

 like the original figures of Hgei', but are very similar, in outline at least, 

 to this species as figured by Lesquereux. § They are also very similar to 



* Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. VI, no. 2, 1878, p. 10, pi. i, figs. 18-21. 

 fPlor. foss. Arct., vol. I, 1868, p. IU2, pi. iv, flgs. ll-l:}; pi. xlvii, fig. 11. 

 X Free. Nat. Mus., vol. V, 1882, p. 447. 

 g loc. cit., pi. viii, fig. 6. 



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