"^^J CHRONOLOGICAL NOTES. 417 



Adolphe Brongniart named the fossil plants of Murchison's Geology 

 of Eussia^"^ and published an explanatory letter. 



One other paper of the minor class may be mentioned, chiefly because 

 it describes American material, viz., that of Dr. James Hall in his report 

 upon the vegetable remains collected by Fremont's expedition in 1842.2»8 

 Eleven species of fossil plants are described in this report, besides the 

 figure (PI. II, Fig. 4), and mention of a dicotyledonous leaf, which last 

 diagnosis is undoubtedly in so far correct. The determination of the 

 ferns is also correct, except in the case of his Glossopteris PMlUpsii 

 (PI. II, Figs. 5, 5a, 56, 5c), which is not a fern but another dicotyledonous 

 plant, as may be seen by the secondary veins and the absence of the 

 characteristic forked nervation of Glossopteris. In these and other re- 

 spects these figures do not agree with those of Brongniart (" Hist. veg. 

 foss "., PI. 61, bis Fig. 5) and Phillips (" Geol. Yorkshire," Pt. I, PI. VIII, 

 Fig. 8). This is not the place to enter into the diagnosis and state the, 

 true afiSnities of these leaves, and indeed from the figures alone this 

 would be a somewhat hazardous task ; as yet only a few of the types 

 figured are in my hands, and of this species only one of the least per- 

 fect specimens, but this and other unfigured fragments fully confirm its 

 reference to the Dicotyledons. Of the geological position of the locality 

 from which this material was derived one can perhaps speak with 

 greater certainty. It is at least certain that it is not Oolitic, as Dr. Hall 

 supposed, and it is probably Cretaceous, perhaps Laramie group. If the 

 latitude and longitude (lat. 41^°, long, llio) were accurately taken this 

 would make Muddy Creek a tributary of the Bear Eiver at a point which 

 is colored as Cretaceous on the new map of the United States Geological 

 Survey prepared by Mr. W. J. McGee (1884). The report will at least 

 serve to direct attention to this locality. 



Among the larger works that appeared in 1845, we will first mention 

 Unger's " Synopsis Plantarum Fossilium," which is a carefully-prepared 

 catalogue of all the fossil plants known to him with references to the 

 works in which first described. The orders and genera are briefly char- 

 acterized, and the localities are stated for the species. At the end is a 

 summaiy, from which we learn that he had been able to enumerate 

 1,648 species. This, as will be remembered, is 130 species less than 

 Goppert had enumerated a year earlier. It probably was, however, a 

 closer approximation to the true state of the science. A complete index 

 and a good bibliography rendered the work convenient for reference, 

 and we can readily imagine its extreme usefulness at that date. 



Probably the most important work of this year was Oorda's " Flora 



^'Geologie de la Eussie d'Europe et des montagnes de I'Oural, par Roderick Impey 

 Murchison, Edoaard de Verneuil, et le Comte Alexandre de Keyserling. Londres et 

 Paris, 1845, Tome 11, pp. 1-13. 



MS Report of the Exploriag Expedition to the Rooky Mountains in the year 1842, and to 

 Oregon and North California in the years 1843-'44. By Capt. J. C. Fremont, Wash- 

 ington, 1845, pp. 304-307, plates I and U. 



GEOL 84 27 



