PALEONTOLOGIC NOTES FLORA 175 



Mr White's* discussion was based on study of- collections made by 

 himself from the Clarion, Kittanning, and Freeport groups of Pennsyl- 

 vania as well as from the upper and lower portions of the Kanawha 

 group, this latter term being applied to the rocks above the ISFuttall sand- 

 stone up to and including the Stockton coal bed, underlying the Kanawha 

 Black Flint. The study is reported in detail, full lists of plants at each 

 horizon being given and their relations compared closely. It is neces- 

 sary here to note only the author's conclusions. 



Some forms are common to the lower Kanawha and the Allegheny, but 

 they are either those of wide vertical range or such as originate in the 

 upper zone of the Pottsville as now understood. A very large proportion 

 of the forms which can be identified positively are either the same with 

 upper Pottsville (Beaver) forms or are modifications of them. The 

 plant life of the lower Kanawha is distinct from that of even the Clarion 

 or lower Allegheny, not only in the different forms of ferns, but also 

 in the more important relations of the flora as a whole. The fern ele- 

 ments of the Pennsylvania Allegheny are essentially different from those 

 of the lower Kanawha and are in contrast with those below the Home- 

 wood sandstone (top of Beaver) of western Pennsylvania and below the 

 Buck Mountain conglomerate in the Southern Anthracite field. The 

 flora of the Freeport group is allied to that of the Upper Coal Measures 

 of Pennsylvania or the Middle Coal Measures of the Old World; even 

 that of the Clarion group is still bound to the higher floras and is com- 

 parable to the Middle Coal Measures of Britain, the upper portion of the 

 Westphalian series; but the floral associations in the lower half of the 

 Kanawha are almost totally lacking in characteristic elements of the 

 Allegheny flora. Many of its elements are slight modifications of types 

 in the West Virginia "Pottsville" (Rockcastle) and in the Southern 

 Anthracite field, while the greater part of the rest are closely allied to 

 Pottsville plants elsewhere or are unfamiliar forms. The lower Kana- 

 wha is comparable to the Westphalian or Lower Coal ]\Ieasures of 

 European basins. It is an elaborate connecting link between the typical 

 Pottsville or Millstone grit flora and the Clarion flora of the Allegheny. 



The flora of the Stockton coal bed, or upper Kanawha, on the contrary, 

 shows a large proportion of forms identical with those found in the 

 Allegheny valley; it is a typical Allegheny flora. Absence of the higher 

 pecopterids as well as the proportion and range of the identical forms be- 

 speak for the Stockton flora a place probably not higher than the Clarion 



* D. White : Relative ages of the ICanawha and Allegheny series as Indicated hy the 

 fossil plants. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. 11, pp. 145-1T8, 



