346 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



ever, has, by its remains, an analogy in that of the sandstone of the 

 Eocene of Mount Bolca, where, as with us, the genera represented by 

 thick coriaceous species, Caulerpites, Belesserites, Salimenites, Munsteria^ 

 and GhondriteSj are predominant. Perhaps it will be observed that we 

 cannot attach great importance to the tUstribution of vegetable remains 

 whose forms multiply in proportion to their divisions and are generally 

 indistinct, and whose law of distribution is so little fixed that species 

 from distant formations are considered by some authors as identical; 

 as, for example, Fucoides Targioni and Fucoides antiquus, quoted from the 

 Cretaceous as well as from the Silurian and from the Devonian. It 

 would be easy to prove that as fast as these deep marine plants become 

 better studied, their characters are recognized and their specifications 

 fixed, but this is out of the way of these researches. Some species of 

 fucoids of our Eocene are perfectly distinct ; their characters are as 

 clearly marked as they could be for any dicotyledonous fossil -plants. 

 These, therefore, maybe compared to the Mount Bolca species, and, 

 what is more to the point, their remains, from different localities of our 

 Lignitic, afford, by identity or difference of characters, reliable indication 

 of the relation of the strata. I have named already a large species of 

 Halimenites whose stem and branches are covered with half-round tuber- 

 cules, and which is recognized at first sight. It is represented in the 

 Eocene flora of Europe by Halimenites rectus and Halimenites minor, 

 both intimately related to the American species. And remains of this 

 fucoid have been observed and specimens collected in our Lignitic forma- 

 tions from the base of the great sandstone to its top, even in sandstone- 

 strata overlying the Lignitic beds everywhere over the whole area 

 covered by this formation. Professor Meek has found fine specimens of 

 it at Bear Creek, near Fort Steele and Coalville. I can really say that 

 I have not exploretl any station of the Lignitic without recognizing this 

 species, especially abundant at Black Buttes, where, as remarked already, 

 splendid specimens of it are embedded in the sandstone underlying the 

 main coal. 



The genus Belesseria, in the order of the Florideoe, forms now by its 

 numerous and beautiful species a predominent character of the marine 

 flora of our temperate zone. Its distribution extends between 30® 

 and 60'^ of latitude, north and south of the equator, remarkably coin- 

 ciding with that of the Lignitic formation on this continent. The first 

 representatives of this genus are positively recognized, in Europe at 

 least, with the Eocene formation. Of the eight fossil species known 

 till now and described by Schimper in his Vegetable Paleontology, the 

 seven first ones, whose relation to this genus is uncontested, belong to 

 the Eocene. The only species mentioned from the Cretaceous, Helesseria 

 Beicliii, Schimper, is like that Fucoides digitatus, Brgt., of doubtful 

 afiinity, being named at first, by Sternberg, Haliserites, and then con- 

 sidered by Eossmiissler, Brown, &c., as a fern. From our Eocene sand- 

 stone eight species of marine plants only are described ; of these three 

 are true JDelesseria — two from the Eaton Mountains, the other from 

 Golden. 



Coming to the examination of land vegetation, we are met at once by 

 the appearance in our Eocene measures of a class of plants, giving 

 evidence of the age of these measures, fully as conclusive as that of the 

 fucoids. It is that of the palms, of the section of the Sabal. Scarcely 

 any trace of these vegetables has been remarked in the Upper Creta- 

 ceous of Europe. There they become somewhat conspicuous in the 

 Eocene, but their largest development is with the Miocene. With us 

 they appear immediately above the great Eocene sandstone, or in con- 



