338 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 13. 



four other species fi-om this and otlier local- 

 ities. 



Meantime other collections were being- 

 made, and in 1880 M. Paul Choffat pub- 

 lished a somewhat elaborate report on the 

 geology of the Jui-assic of Portugal* in which 

 the fossil plants were considered as far as 

 available. The collections were sent by 

 Choffat to Professor Oswald Heer, and a 

 preliminary report upon them was received 

 in time to be inserted as an Addendum. 

 Heer's full report appeared a year laterf and 

 constitutes the first important contribution 

 to the Mesozoic flora of Portugal. It also 

 inchides a large number of Tertiarj^ plants. 

 The horizons are here regarded as embra- 

 cing : first, the Rhetic ; second, the Jurassic, 

 subdivided into Lias, Oolite or Dogger, and 

 Upper Jurassic or Malm ; and third, the 

 Cretaceous, which was largely compared 

 with the Wealden of other pai'ts of Europe. 

 Heer found in these collections 5 Rhetic, 

 18 Jurassic, and 23 Cretaceous forms. The 

 Cretaceous plants consisted chiefly of ferns, 

 cycads and conifers, but two of them were 

 referred to the monocotyledons. No traces 

 of dicotyledons were discovered. 



M. Choffat continued his investigations 

 and after Heer's death sent the plant-im- 

 pressions to the Marquis Saporta at Aix; 

 the latter was greatly interested in them 

 and published three preliminary reports. J 

 What specially attracted him was the pres- 

 ence of certain peculiar forms from this 

 Lower Cretaceous horizon that he regarded 

 as prototypes of the existing dicotyledonous 



* Etude straUgraphique et PaUontologique des terrains 

 Jurassiques du Portugal. Premiere livraison. Le Lias 

 et le Dogger au Nord du Tage. Section des ti-avaux 

 g^ologiques du Portugal, Lisbonne, 1880. 



t Contribution.^ a la flore fossile du Portugal par le 

 Dr. Oswald Heer. Section des travaux gi5ologiques 

 du Portugal, Lisbonne, 1881. 



X Comptes Sendus Acad. Sci. de Paris, Vol. CVL, 

 May 28, 1888, pp. 1500-1504 ; CXI., December 1, 

 1890, pp. 812-815 ; CXIIL, August 3, 1891, pp. 249- 

 253. 



flora. No dicotyledons had thus far been 

 reported fi-om any Lower Cretaceous deposit 

 in Europe, and it had long been supposed 

 that the Cenomanian was the earUest horizon 

 at which this type existed. The several in- 

 stalments embraced in these papers were 

 from horizons in the Cretaceous, some of 

 wliich were the same as those containing 

 the plants described by Heer, while others 

 were considerably liigher. They contained 

 a number of very remarkable forms, and the 

 Marquis could not doubt that they repre- 

 sented ancestral dicotyledons. The full re- 

 port upon these interesting collections has 

 been waited for with great impatience, espe- 

 cially bj' American geologists familiar with 

 our Potomac formation, in which the case is 

 so nearly paralleled. In fact the present 

 ■«Titer, having learned through correspond- 

 ence with the Marquis that large collections 

 were in his hands, and not knowing how 

 soon his report would appear, was so de- 

 sirous of learning more in regard to them 

 that while in Europe during the past sum- 

 mer, by pre-vious arrangement with him 

 and at his urgent request, he paid a visit to 

 the veteran paleobotanist at Aix, in the 

 South of France, and through his extreme 

 courtesj' was not only permitted to examine 

 these collections, but enjoyed the great favor 

 of discussing with him a large number of 

 the most interesting questions to which they 

 give rise. It was then that he learned that 

 the final report was already in press and 

 would soon appear, and proof sheets of the 

 text and plates were then in the possession 

 of the author, so that it was possible to ex- 

 amine the work in immediate connection 

 with the specimens. This work has now 

 appeared* and copies of it are in the 

 hands of American geologists ; but it may 



* Flore fossile du Portugal. Nouvelles contributions 

 a la flore Mesozoique par le Marquis Saporta. Ac- 

 compagnees d' uue notice stratigrapUique par Paul 

 Choffat. ( Aveo 40 planches. ) Direction des travaux 

 gcologiques du Portugal, Lisbonne, 1894. 



II 



