604 W. T. LEE STRATIGRAPHY OF COAL FIELDS OF KEW MEXICO 



"The fossil plant material from the coal fields of central New Mexico while 

 very extensive is not yet fully worked up — in fact is largely new to science — 

 which accounts for the short lists of species. However, it is not probable that 

 any material change of opinion as regards stratigraphic position is likely to 

 result from the complete elaboration of the material, but rather it is likely to 

 be strengthened by the recognition of a greater number of species common to 

 the various areas. 



"Bearing in mind the above limitations, we may first consider the flora of 

 the Raton Mesa region which occurs in association with the lower coal ; that 

 is, in the beds below the now well established unconformity. If, as has been 

 suggested, the beds immediately below the Trinidad sandstone are to be corre- 

 lated with the Lewis shale of the San Juan Basin, then the overlying coal- 

 bearing rocks might on stratigraphic grounds be presumed to belong to the 

 Laramie. The plants found in these beds do not bear out this contention, for 

 they have almost no afiinity with the typical Laramie of the Denver Basin, 

 there being only two or three species in common, and these of wide vertical 

 distribution or of doubtful identification. On the other hand, this flora has a 

 positive and unmistakable affinity with the flora of the Mesaverde of the 

 western slope of the mountains, and, to go further afield, with the flora of 

 the Rock Springs coal group (Mesaverde) of Point of Rocks, Wyoming. When 

 we find, as is the case, that such well-marked and hence unmistakable species 

 as Sequoia hrevifolia, Woodwarclia crenata, Ficus speclosissima, Ficus 'tri- 

 nervis,' Ficus wardii, Ficus lanceolata, Sahal 'grandifolia' (Geonomites of 

 some writers), Myrica torreyi, as well as a number of equally well-marked but 

 unnamed species, in common between this and one or the other of the areas 

 above mentioned, we are inevitably led to the conclusion that they are essen- 

 tially of the same age. 



"On the west side of the mountains in the Cerrillos, Htigan, Tijeras, Rio 

 Puerco, and Cabezon coal fields, the floras under discussion occur mainly in 

 the coal-bearing beds from 400 to 600 feet above the base of the Mesaverde of 

 this region, though, some of them also range somewhat higher in the Montana, 

 especially in the Durango field to the north. The relationship between these 

 floras and that at Point of Rocks, Wyoming, is even closer than that already 

 mentioned between the Raton Mesa region and Point of Rocks, by the addition 

 of such forms as Nelumho intermedia, Trapa microplylla, Salix Stantonif, 

 etcetera. There can be no doubt, it seems to me, that the floras of the Raton 

 Mesa region, of the central and western New Mexican fields and of the Point of 

 Rocks field, are essentially identical, and helice, per force, are of essentially 

 the same age. 



"Near Dulce, New Mexico, aiid near Durango, Colorado, there have been 

 obtained two collections of plants from above the Lewis shale in coal-bearing 

 rocks that have been referred to the so-called 'Laramie" of this region. These 

 collections are very full and embrace a number of easily recognized species — 

 hence their identification is satisfactory- and complete. These collections prove 

 clearly that these beds do not belong to the Laramie, since so far as known 

 to the writer, not a single species there present has ever been found in beds 

 of this age. On the other hand, the plants indicate bej'ond question that they 

 belong to the Montana, there being, for instance, Ficus speclosissima, Ficus sp. 

 (narrow 3-nerved type), Ficus sp. type of F. lanceolata, a palm, etcetera, 



