278 OLDER MESOZOIC FLORAS OF UNITED STATES. 
of the forms described in Pt. VI of the American Geology,: but with- 
out success. Neither the types nor any of the fossil-plant material 
collected by Emmons could be found. That being the case, the figures 
given by Emmons were the sole dependence for comparison, and under 
the circumstances, they could not be very satisfactory. . It-was thought 
best, then, to reproduce these. figures in Monograph, United States 
Geological Survey, Vol. VI, giving Emmons’s descriptions, and to 
accompany them with such criticisms as would be suggested by the 
Virginia specimens. Even from the figuresit could be seen that there 
was a larger number of plants common to the two States than Emmons 
had noticed. This review was embodied in the Monograph. 
Recently, Prof. T. Nelson Dale, in examining the unsorted and un- 
classified fossils.in the collections of Williams College, Massachusetts, 
found fossil plants which he recognized as having been collected by 
Emmons. This led him to think that probably the long-lost collection 
might be found to have been placed in Williams College, and he so 
stated to Professor Ward. Professor Ward, knowing its importance, 
visited Williams College, and after an examination of the specimens 
was convinced that they formed all that remained of Emmons’s collection. 
Dr. Dale only recently took charge of the collections of fossils’ in 
Williams College. He found a large mass of heterogeneous and 
unsorted material, and going over this for the purpose of labeling the 
specimens and placing them in cases for preservation, he found the 
fossils above alluded to. They were scattered among animal fossils 
and other specimens. Noattempt had been made to keep them together 
and credit them to Dr. Emmons. A considerable number of the speci- 
mens were evidently as Emmons had packed them in collecting, and 
they were accompanied by his field labels, bearing the names of the 
plants and the localities yielding them. There is no record as to how 
these fossils came into the possession of Williams College, and no one 
prior to Dr. Dale’s discovery knew of their existence. It is probable 
that they were presented to the college by Dr. Emmons after the pub- 
lication of the descriptions, or by Mrs. Emmons after his death. 
The collection made by Dr. Emmons will in all probability stand as 
the most complete one of the plant fossils of the Older Mesozoic of 
North Carolina. He made it under exceptionally favorable circum- 
stances, which will most probably never be met with again. The 
rocks closely associated with the coal of North Carolina are the only 
ones that in future will probably be opened up and afford opportunity 
for the collection of plant fossils. If we may judge from Emmons’s 
experience, they, unlike those similarly placed in Virginia, are very 
poor in plant fossils. Emmons found nearly all his specimens, and all 
his best-preserved and most interesting plants, in measures that have 
been proved to be without workable coal, and which occur, according to 
him, many hundred feet above the wor kable coal. It is not probable 
