FLORA OF THE CHEYENNE SANDSTONE OF KANSAS, 
atum Lesquereux, Sequoia condita Lesquereux, 
Abietites ernestinae Lesquereux, Sterculia mu- 
cronata Lesquereux, and Sassafras mudgii 
Lesquereux. Of these the first two were found 
near Delphos, Kans.; Sequoia condita, one of 
the most abundant forms in the Cheyenne 
sandstone, was known simply from ‘‘ Kansas’”’ 
and might really have come originally from the 
Cheyenne sandstone; Abietites ernestinae was 
from Decatur, Nebr.; Sterculia mucronata was 
from Ellsworth County, Kans.; and Sassafras 
mudgit was recorded from Salina River, Kans., 
and Evans quarry, S. Dak. According to 
Stanton the outcrops of the Dakota sandstone 
at Delphos, in Ellsworth County, and along 
Salina River, in Kansas, and at Decatur, Nebr., 
are in the upper part of the Dakota, the beds 
at Decatur being within 300 feet of the top. 
Hence the species common to these localities 
tend to emphasize the transitional: character 
of the Cheyenne flora. . 
Five of the remaining six species common to 
the Dakota are of still more value in that they 
have all been recorded from other regions 
where the age is less a matter of doubt. , The 
sixth, Asplenium dicksonianum Heer, is of 
slight value in this connection, as it is probably. 
It has been recorded | 
a composite species. 
from both older and younger formations, 
namely, Tuscaloosa, Raritan, Patapsco, La- 
kota, Kome, Atane, Kootenai, and the Upper 
Cretaceous of Sakhalin Island. Gilleichenia nor- 
denskioldi was described originally from mate- 
rial collected in the Kome beds of Greenland 
and identified by Lesquereux in specimens 
from the Dakota at Fort Harker, Kans. I 
have identified the Cheyenne sandstone speci- 
mens as this species because they are identical 
with those described under that name by Les- 
quereux, but neither these nor Lesquereux’s 
specimens can be distinguished from another of 
Heer’s nominal species of Gleichenia, namely, 
Gleichenia zippei, which has been recorded all 
over the Northern Hemisphere at horizons 
ranging from Lower Cretaceous to Senonian 
and has been found in the Atlantic Coastal 
Plain in the Raritan and Magothy formations. 
Abietites longifolius ranges through the Poto- 
mac group of Maryland and Virginia and is 
found in the Raritan formation in New Jersey 
and in the Fuson formation of the Black Hills. 
“Sapindopsis magnifolia is a Patapsco species, 
Sterculia towneri (Lesquereux) is found in the 
| Cretaceous. 
205 
Magothy formation, and Araliopsoides ‘cretacea 
(N ewberry) is found in the Raritan and Mag- 
othy formations of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. 
A prominent element in the Cheyenne 
sandstone flora consists of the three nominally 
distinct species of Sapindopsis, which are 
equally prominent in the Patapsco formation 
of Maryland and Virginia. One of these is also 
probably present in the true (later) Dakota 
flora, and another has been recorded from the 
Fuson formation of the Black Hills, although 
the latter is not entirely characteristic. This 
considerable Patapsco element in the Cheyenne 
flora is of considerable interest, for it includes, 
in addition to the abundant remains of these 
three species of Sapindopsis, a characteristic 
Abietites (A. longifolius). . These three forms 
of, Sapindopsis are distinguished chiefly by the 
size of their leaflets and probably in both floras 
represent slight variants of a single botanic 
| Species. 
The Patapsco flora has been rather definitely 
correlated with the Albian stage of Europe.” 
I do not regard the community of Sapindopsis 
and Abietites in the Cheyenne and Patapsco as 
indicating synchroneity, for the following 
reasons. The Patapsco flora contains 41 
species that persist into it from the older Lower 
Only one of these, the Abietites, 
occurs in the Cheyenne, and it is also present 
in the Atane beds of Greenland and the Raritan 
formation of New Jersey. The Patapsco flora 
numbers 83 species, and of this large number 
only two have been found in the immediately 
overlying Raritan formation. Neither of these 
occurs in the Cheyenne. 
The Cheyenne entirely lacks the older 
elements that serve to distinguish the Patapsco 
from the Raritarf and stamp its age as Albian. 
For example, the following fern genera of the 
Patapsco are not found in the Cheyenne: 
Ruffordia, Acrostichopteris, Knowltonella, Olado- 
phlebis, Dryopteris, Onychiopsis, Sagenopteris, 
Tempskya, Scleropteris, and Thinnfeldia; the 
following cycadophyte genera of the Patapsco 
are not found in the Cheyenne: Ctenopteris, 
Zamipsis, Nilsonia, Zamites, Dichotozamites, 
and Podozamites; and the following conifero- 
phyte genera of the Patapsco are not found 
in the Cheyenne: Nageiopsis, Brachyphyllum, 
Araucarites, Pinus, Frenelopsis, Sphenolepis, 
18 Berry, E. W., Maryland Geol. Survey, Lower Cretaceous, p. 172, 
1911, 
i 
