GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TEERITOEIES. 305 



tliat of Europe, and consequently with the climatic conditions of both 

 countries, the most important information." From these considerations 

 my celebrated friend infers that his descriptions of seven Tertiary 

 species of fossil plants from Vancouver Island and British Colum- 

 bia, must be considered a valuable contribution to vegetable paleon- 

 tology. If this is right, and no naturalist of conscience will deny 

 the truth of the above conclusions, how high shall we estimate the 

 result of the researches of Dr. F. V. Hayden, who, in his last tour 

 of geological explorations, has obtained from twenty different localities 

 of the Western States or Territories many hundred specimens, repre- 

 senting more than eighty species of Tertiary fossil plants? The import- 

 ance of these researches, to which we are indebted, also, for most of 

 what we know of the vegetation of our Cretaceous formations, has been 

 already acknowledged by science here, and especially in Europe, as 

 evinced by the notable discussions which they have x)rovoked. As it 

 may be seen by the maj) of the Yellowstone and Missouri Elvers, and 

 their tributaries, in Dr. Hay den's report, (1870,) the area occupied in 

 the West by Tertiary formations is of considerable extent. Already 

 the fossil plants known from this formation represent localities from 

 Nebraska, Dakota, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, &c. We may thus 

 already foresee that in a not far distant time the fossil flora of the 

 recent formations of our continent will have been studied and be known 

 well enough to draw to it a more general interest; for then it will be 

 abje to answer most of the questions which now occupy the mind of the 

 paleontologists, and which, as already remarked, bear upon some of 

 the most interesting problems of the history of our earth's surface. 



§2. Table of Distribution of Species. 



The following comparative table of distribution of our Tertiary fossil 

 plants indicates the relation of species to localities and to the different 

 stages of the Tertiary formations both in Europe and in America, by 

 reference to identical or analogous species. To render the table more 

 complete, mqre interesting for the present, and at the same time more 

 useful for the future as a kind of frame where new dist^overies may be 

 recorded and compared, I have composed it of all the American Ter- 

 tiary species until now described and published, excepting, however, 

 the 56 species from Alaska in Heer's Flora Alasl^ana, whicli rather per- 

 tain to the Arctic flora. The table shows, however, the North Ameri- 

 can Tertiary plants identical with Alaska species. I have also omitted 

 the fossil plants from Vancouver, the Orcas Islands, and Nanaimo, not 

 only on account of their as yet unascertained geological relation, but 

 also of our imperfect acquaintance with their specific characters. Dr. 

 Evans's specimens are still accessible, and 1 hope soon to have an oppor- 

 tunity of reviewing them, of comparing them with former descrii)tions, 

 and to give for a next report a definitive account of the forms whicli 

 they re[)resent. 



This table is, I think, easily understood. The first three sections, 

 marked J\U(I(Jle Miocene, Lotcer Miocene, and Eocene, are as yet hypotheti- 

 caily limited. The reasons of this limitation, and the characters of the 

 sections as resulting from the species admitted into each of them, will 

 be examined herealter. Tlui fourth section, marked Unknown, has the 

 species from localities not satisfactorily known, either on account of the 

 two small number of specimens representing them, or from want of re- 

 liable reference. In the three sections marking stages of the l^hiropeau 

 Tertiary, the rehition of our Tertiary species with tliose of Europe is 

 20 G s 



