On the Plants of the World before Man. 277 
ors. During all this time the flowing water, springs and rivu- 
lets, uniting their action to that of the wind and rain, carried to 
the bottom of the lake fragments of plants of various kinds, 
especially leaves, branches, flowers and fruits, indeed all the 
parts naturally torn from the trees and the shrubs growing in 
the neighborhood along the shore.” 
For those who have seen specimens of shale of the deposits 
of Florissant in Colorado, thin laming covered with small frag- 
ments of plants (their branches, leaves, seeds, flowers, even or- 
those of the Green River station, Elko, the mouth of White 
River, etc. It is right to remark, however, before looking to 
~ 
upon the shrubs until the end of the spring. The leaves of 
species are extremely numerous, none of them crumpled, 
is observed. One of the richest deposits, eight to ten 
feet thick, is formed of alternate sandy layers three to five mil- 
limeters thick, and it is between the layers that the fishes are 
found petrified sometimes in prodigious numbers. This evi- 
dently shows that under the influence of summer heat, by 
