* TfiE We^ America gdE^l'lgtf. 



Vol. V SEPTEMBER, 1888. No. 39 



FOSSIL BO TANY— V. 



As we look back in geological time, the progress of life seems 

 to diminish in intensity and rapidity of succession. We have 

 seen that during the older tertiary (eocene) time, our present 

 continents were alternately raised above, and engulfed beneath 

 the oceans of the respective epochs, and during these alternations 

 many of the large terrestrial animals, together with the larger 

 forms of vegetable growth, must have, in a greater or lesser 

 degree, been destroyed. This seems also to have been the case 

 during the later cretaceous, hence, the rocks formed by deposits 

 following these great changes are comparatively barren of impor- 

 tant organic remains, and so far as California is concerned, the 

 lines of demarcation between the rocks of the latter cretaceous, 

 and the lower or earlier tertiary, are so poorly defined as to leave 

 much doubt among geologists, as to where the one ends and the 

 other begins, much of the deposits of these times having been 

 made in deep still waters. 



But now, as we turn and adjust our geological telescope to the 

 dim uncertainty of the older eocene, and the latter cretaceous, we 

 look beyond the time of the first appearance cf the gigantic con- 

 geners of the elephant, rhinoceros, tapir, sivatherium, hippo- 

 potamus, zeujlodon and hosts of other strange and long extinct 

 animals, to the period anterior to the incoming of the higher 

 orders of animals among which man takes his place to the age of 

 the great reptiles, when the land was occupied by the dinosaurs, 

 the elephants of their time. 



Some of these huge reptiles, as for instance the Hadrosaurus of 

 New Jersey, when erect upon its tripod, formed by its hind legs 

 and tail, stood more than twenty feet in height, and browsed upon 

 the trees and vegetation of its time, while the still larger Mega- 

 losaurus, which preceded it, was a terror to its animal contem- 

 poraries. Imagine a Ceteosaurus with a height often feet, and a 

 length of forty or fifty feet. 



As we are looking beyond the age of birds, we see bird-like 

 reptiles, some of them with teeth and tails like reptiles, witn the 

 tru' k, wings and feathers ol the perching birds. 



The dry land was covered with trees and plants, many of which 

 are easily referable to existing genera and types, such as the 

 willow, sycamore, poplar, various conifers and cycads, while 

 others, which at first sight resemble the finest and most beautiful 



