120 L. F. Ward — Evidence of the Fossil Plants 



tirely to the evidence which the vegetable remains found in 

 that formation furnish toward the solution of this question. 

 Until quite recently this was the only paleontologic evidence 

 attainable, but within the past six months vertebrate remains 

 have been found which are of the highest value. Indeed, 

 with the exception of a few ferns obtained by Mr. F. Shep- 

 herd near Fredericksburg, Virginia, and figured with very im- 

 perfect descriptions in a paper by Kichard C. Taylor, pub- 

 lished in the Transactions of the Geological Society of Penn- 

 sylvania, in 1835,* it is only within the past five or six years 

 that the existence of plants, other than silicified wood and lig- 

 nite, in this formation has been made known. For their dis- 

 covery, thorough investigation, and careful elaboration, we are 

 almost wholly indebted to Professor Wm. M. Fontaine, of the 

 University of Virginia. Four years ago, Professor Fontaine 

 brought to Washington some specimens collected at Freder- 

 icksburg in what he then regarded as Jurassic strata, which, 

 though quite imperfect, he had observed to differ from all the 

 ferns, conifers and cycads of true Jurassic type, and to resem- 

 ble in many respects dicotyledonous leaves. 



Although aware that certain ferns, such as Dictyophyllum, 

 Thaumatopteris and Clathropteris, having decidedly net-veined 

 fronds, have been found in Jurassic strata, nevertheless, so 

 different were these leaves from such forms, and so similar 

 were they to modern deciduous leaves, that I expressed at the 

 time my conviction that they were true Dicotyledons, though 

 of an archaic type ; and speaking of them in my article on 

 Mesozoic Dicotyledons, in this Journal for April, 1884, I said 

 (p. 303) that they " certainly possess all the essential elements 

 of Dicotyledonous leaves, although at the same time bearing a 

 certain recognizable stamp of the cryptogamic and gymno- 

 spermous vegetation that characterizes that earlier age." 



As the subclass Dicotyledons, formerly called angiospermous 

 Exogens, had at that time, with the exception of a single some- 

 what doubtful species, never been found lower than the Cen- 

 omanian of France, Quadersandstein of Germany, Middle Cre- 

 teceous of Greenland, and the Dakota Gro.up and Amboy clays 

 of the United States, all of which are usually regarded as 

 nearly equivalent in age and as representing the middle mem- 

 ber of the Cretaceous above the Gault, my interest in this ap- 

 parently great downward extension of this class of plants was 

 from the first of the liveliest character, and I have from that 

 day not only watched eagerly the progress of Professor Fon- 

 taine's investigations, but have accompanied him on several of 

 his collecting tours through the States of Virginia, Maryland 

 and North Carolina, and have carefully studied the beds hold- 



* Vol. i, pp. 320-325, PI. XIX. 



