A. Hollick — Kenai Flora of Alaska. 327 



Art. XXIX. — Hestdts of a Preliminary Study of the so-called 

 Kenai Flora of Alaska ; by Arthur Hollick.* 



Introduction. 



During a recent preliminary study of a series of collections 

 of fossil plants from Alaska Peninsula, especially from the vicin- 

 ity of Plerendeen Bay and Chignik Bay, tentatively assumed, 

 for the most part, to represent the flora of deposits to which 

 the name Kenai formation has been applied, a number of facts 

 were brought to light which are of considerable biological 

 interest and which may prove, after critical analysis, to be of 

 value from the standpoint of stratigraphy. 



The name Kenai was originally applied to a series of beds 

 exposed in southeastern Alaska, particularly on the shores of 

 Kachemak Bay, Kenai Peninsula,! which at that time were 

 regarded as Miocene or Oligocene in age but are now generally 

 recognized as Eocene. The results attained from the recent 

 studies indicate that, if the use of the name is to be restricted 

 to the beds of the type locality and their equivalents elsewhere, 

 there is also a series of beds, more or less closely associated with 

 them stratigraphically, which may or may not be included in 

 the formation. The ultimate inclusion or exclusion of these 

 latter, either in whole or in part, cannot be determined, how- 

 ever, until all of the paleobotanical evidence has been carefully 

 weighed and compared with whatever stratigraphic observa- 

 tions may be available. 



For example, some of the collections contain only Tertiary 

 species. In others, often from the same localities, there is a 

 preponderance of Tertiary species and a minority of Cretaceous. 

 In others the majority are Cretaceous, with certain genera 

 which are identical with those of the Jurassic. The several 

 collections appear to merge into each other without any abrupt 

 break in the paleobotanical sequence, and further careful 

 investigation will be necessary before attempting to draw any 

 stratigraphic line intended to indicate a differentiation of the 

 flora into one undoubtedly of Tertiary and another of Creta- 

 ceous age ; but the facts may, at least, be described and their 

 biological significance discussed. 



Description of the Flora. 



The flora represented in the collections thus far studied, if 

 regarded as a unit, is unique so far as North America is con- 

 cerned. There is none other described from either the United 



* Published with the permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey. 



f Dall and Harris, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 84 (Correlation Papers, 

 Neocene), p. 233, 1892. 



