BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

 VOL. 16, PP. 499-516, PLS. 86-87 DECEMBER 18, 1905 



TERTIARY LIGNITE OF BRANDON, VERMONT, AND ITS 



FOSSILS 



BY G. H. PERKINS 



{Presented before the Society December SO, 1904) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Historical sketch 499 



Location and extent of the lignite deposit 500 



Associated deposits 501 



Age of the lignite 502 



Appearance and character of the lignite 502 



Use and value as fuel 503 



Botanical character 503 



Fossils of the Brandon lignite .• 504 



Difficulty of obtaining specimens 504 



Location of collections 505 



Difficulty of identification from published descriptions 505 



Method of identification adopted 505 



Vegetable remains only found in the lignite 506 



Comparison of lignite fruits with those of living species 506 



Descriptions of species 507 



Bibliography . 514 



Explanation of plates 515 



Historical Sketch 



In 1846, while sinking a shaft to reach a bed of limonite near Brandon y 

 Vermont, the workmen came upon a deposit of brown coal or lignite, 

 which at the time attracted only local attention. Five years later, in 

 1851, some of the lignite and fossils found in it were sent to President 

 Edward Hitchcock at Amherst. As a result of this, President Hitch- 

 cock soon visited the locality and wrote a description of it, which was 

 published in the American Journal of Science and Arts* 23 figures of 

 the fossils being given, but none of them were described or named. Not 

 long after the above publication, Doctor Hitchcock sent some of the 

 fossils to Mr Lesquereux, who published descriptions and names of the 



* Vol. xv, 1853, pp. 95-104. 

 LXV-Bur.i.. Geoi.. Soc. Am., Vol. 16, 1904 (499) 



