346 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. | [Vor. XXXIX. 
ture is so uniform; nor can the names bestowed upon these 
remains be taken to indicate relationship with the modern forms 
except in a most generalized sense, indicating rather the personal 
preference or convenience of their describers. However, as 
organic remains of frequent occurrence and definite character 
they deserve a place in fossil floras, and are perhaps more useful 
to the geologist than to the botanist. 
Summarizing the described species, we may note that we 
have no evidence of grasses nor of sedges during the Paleozoic. 
When parallel-veined leaves were supposed to indicate exclusively 
Monocotyledonous character a number of supposed forms were 
described from the Carboniferous. These have since been found 
to be Calamarian or Sigillarian leaves. The remains from the 
older Mesozoic show little improvement in definiteness. We 
would expect grasses to have existed, and in fact a score of spe- 
cies have been described from the Jurassic (Poacites, Bambu- 
sium, etc.). Saporta in particular has described numerous species 
of grass-like or sedge-like leaves under the name Poacites.! 
The Cretaceous seems to have been very poorly provided 
with sedges, if we may judge from the fossils, chiefly described 
under the name Cyperacites ; the grasses, however, are quite 
numerous during this period (Arundo, Phragmites, Culmites, 
Poacites, etc.). With the ushering in of the Tertiary, both 
grasses and sedges become more common, upward of two score 
species of each type having been described from the Eocene. 
It is in the Miocene, however, that the greatest display of fossil 
grasses and sedges is made, there being numerous species 
founded on culms, glumes, inflorescence, rhizomes, and leaves 
(Carex, Cyperus, Cyperites, Cyperacites, Oryza, Panicum, 
Arundo, Arundinites, Phragmites, Bambusa, Uniola, Palao- 
Avena, etc.). 
Referring more specifically to the Cyperaces, it may,be noted 
that the middle and lower Cretaceous of this country, which 
include the abundant, plant-bearing Potomac beds (Fontaine), 
the Dakota group (Lesquereux), and the Raritan (Newberry, 
1 As a matter of fact, Poacites as characterized by Brongniart in 1822 was 
monotypic, and his species having been relegated to synonymy, the name is not 
available for the Mesozoic species. 
