LESQUEEEUX.J EVIDENCE OF AGE OF LIGNITTC GROUP, 289 



Sapindus affiniSj Newby, (Bad Lands), species of the TJuion group. 



Ehamnus, an uudescribed species (Great Yalley), corresponding, by 

 its preserved part, to B. Eridani Ung., which is Ficus jynx, a Miocene 

 species of Europe and of the upper American Lignitic also. 



Aesculus antiquns, Trapa ho7'eaUs, and CarpoUthes, three new species, 

 described from obscure specimens, from the same locality as that of 

 Lemna, the Bad Lands, west of Woody Mountain. 



From the exposition of this flora, it is not surprising that Professor 

 Dawson should admit, as the result of his study of the fossil plants of 

 the Lignitic, the Tertiarj^ age of these formations. For, indeed, in this 

 flora there is, as remarked already, no trace of any vegetable remains 

 which, by comparison with the species of the Dakota group or with 

 those of the Cretaceous of Europe, could be recognized as identical or 

 even related to any of them. 



Coming back to the other plants of Point of Eocks for considering 

 their characters for an evidence of their age, by comparison with other 

 groups of floras than that of Canada, we find in the table three of them 

 marked as analogous to Cretaceous types. The first, Pistia corrugata, 

 may be, as remarked in the description, an undeveloped or young form 

 of Lemna scutata, a question here without imiDortauce. At first I con- 

 sidered this species as being the first of this genus recognized in a fossil 

 state, for none has been published as yet. But Count Saporta informs 

 me that a species, Pistia Mayelii, Sap. ined., has been found in the fresh- 

 water Upper Cretaceous of Fuveau, France. From the sketch kindly 

 communicated by the author, his species appears very different in its 

 characters from that of Point of Eocks. The generic affinity, however, 

 is worth remarking, for a plant so profusely represented as is our species, 

 which, by itself or mixed with Lemna scutata, covers both sides of a 

 number of large specimens. 



By the same degree of affinity, I have marked in the Cretaceous col- 

 umn of the table Sequoia longifolia, also found at Black Butte, and 

 Sequoia hiformis ; the first on account of a distant likeness to S. Smit- 

 Jiia^ia, and the other to S. BeichenbacJii and S. rigida, three species 

 recognized, the first in the lower, the two others in both the upper 

 and lower stages of the Cretaceous of Greenland. The wide distribution 

 of Sequoia species is generally known ', it is marked here by the presence 

 of these two species in two stages of the Cretaceous. But without 

 taking into account the longevity of these forms, we have to consider 

 that if we have here two conifers merely related to Cretaceous species, 

 this cannot eliminate the testimony of Sequoia hrevifolia, which is as 

 profusely represented in the flora of Point of Eocks as Pistia, and by 

 specimens in a perfect state of preservation. One-half of the specimens 

 of Mr. Cleburn, besides a large number of those of Professor Hay den, show 

 it in its two somewhat different forms. As it is distinctly and easily 

 determined, its characters being precise, and as this conifer is a repre- 

 sentative of the Miocene flora of Greenland and of that of the Baltic, its 

 documentary evidence is more positive than that of the two other Sequoia 

 represented as yet by small fragments, and merely allied to Cretaceous 

 types. 



I consider as referable to the Eocene by analogy of distribution Sal)al 

 Grayana and the two species of JDryophyllum of Point of Eocks. That 

 Palms have originated in the Cretaceous is now an established fact. 

 Schimper, in his Vegetable Paleontology, indicates as from Cretaceous 

 formations two species of uncertain affinity. And nevertheless, in a 

 more recent work, the Flora of Gelinden, by Saporta and Marion, the 

 authors remark that one species of Palms only was known by its fronds 

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