FONTAINE]. THE OROVILLE FLORA. 343 
The beds contain no fossils besides the plants. They are not connected 
stratigraphically with any known formation, and their age, so far as 
yet known, must be determined from the plant fossils. 
Mr. H. W. Turner, in a paper on The Age and Succession of the 
Igneous Rocks of the Sierra Nevada, published in the Journal of 
Geology, Vol. III, No. 4, May-June, 1895, p. 394, speaking of the 
eruptive rocks of the Smartsville area, says: 
These rocks, largely augite-porphyrites and their tuffs, are presumed to have cov- 
ered, as with a mantle, the underlying Paleozoic formation. There are some streaks 
of slates among the eruptive masses, but these have not in the Smartsville area afforded 
any fossils. However, during the past season, in the north extension of the same 
area, in a belt of clay-slate interbedded with augite-breccia and tuff, fossil plants 
were collected by T. W. Stanton. The exact locality is by the stage road south of 
the Oroville Table Mountain, near the Banner gold quartz mine. 
The locality referred to by Mr. Turner is that from which Mr. Ward 
collected. The plants collected by Dr. Stanton were submitted by Mr. 
Ward to me for determination. They will be noticed further on. 
The rock material carrying the plants described in this paper shows 
some chemical disturbance, so that the fossils, especially in the coarser 
matrix, are sometimes poorly preserved in their more delicate parts. 
They are a good deal rubbed, crushed, and distorted. The rocks show 
considerable induration, the finer argillaceous material being in the 
condition of afine slate. The tuffs have the aspect of a hard sandstone. 
The slate varies in color from lead-gray to black, the latter having 
much carbon in a diffused state. It looks much like the roof slates of 
a coal bed. 
To judge from the specimens collected by Messrs. Ward and Storrs, 
most of the rock of the Oroville beds that carries plants consists of 
alternations of sandy-looking beds with layers of slate. The former 
are probably the tuffs noticed by Mr. Turner. I will refer to this’ 
material as tuffs in describing the plants. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SPECIES. 
Subkingdom PTERIDOPHYTA (Ferns and Fern Allies). 
Class FILICALES. 
Family FILICES (Ferns). 
Genus THY RSOPTERIS Kuntze. 
Tuyrsopreris Maaniana Heer? 
Pl. XLIX, Fig. 1. 
1876. Thyrsopteris Maakiana Heer: Jura-Flora Ostsibiriens, Fl. Foss. Arct., Vol. IV, 
Pt. I, pp. 23, 31, 118, pl. i, figs. la, 1b; pl. ii, figs. 5, 5b, 6. 
This plant was found in one specimen at the locality “Tn the bed 
of a ravine that leads from the Banner mine,” etc., and in three speci- 
