256 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 
Family SCINCID^. 
Plestiodon leptogrammus^ Baird. — Two post-nasals, the posterior one behind 
and above the much smaller anterior. Color black, with five narrow, white 
lines, the two lateral along the middle of single rows. Median light line not 
bifurcated. 
Platte River Valley. Lt. Warren, Dr. Hay den. Type No. 3119. 
Plestiodon inornatus, Baird. — Two post-nasals of equal size, one above the 
other. Hind lew applied three times forwards, reaching the ear. 
//a5.— Sand Hills of Platte. Lt. Warren, Dr. Hayden. Type No. 3110. 
Plestiodon tetrafframmus, Baird. — One post-nasal plate; post-frontal and inter- 
nasals separated by the post-nasal. Five supra- orbitals. Dorsal scales of 
equal width. Light olive green above ; sides with two yellowish lines, separated 
by six rows of darker olive scales. Upper labials pure yellowish. Body en- 
circled by about 28 rows of scales. No dorsal stripe. 
Ifab — Lower Rio Grande. Dr. Berlandier, Lt. Couch. Type No. 3124, 
Plestiodon egregius^ Baird. — One post-nasal plate; post-frontal and inter-nasals 
separated by the post-nasal. Four upper labials. Ears very small. Two cen- 
tral dorsal rows largest. Body cylindrical. Color reddish ash, with two or 
three white lines on each side, margined with dusky, sometimes a third ; all 
these along the centres of single rows of scales. Upper lateral lines separated 
by two plain rows. Body encircled by about 22 rows of scales. 
//a6.— Indian Key, Fla. G. Wurdemann. Type No. 3128, 
Plestiodon septentrionalis^ Baird, — One post-nasal plate which does not separate 
the inter-nasals and post-frontals. Color above olive, with four equidistant and 
equal dark stripes on adjacent half rows of scales. Two narrow white lines on 
aach side, traversing the centres of single rows, and margined above and below 
by black. Upper lateral light stripes separated by six rows of scales. Beneath 
light greenish. 
Hah. — Minnesota and Nebraska. Rev. S, W. Manney, 'Type 1356. 
Eemarks on the lower Cretaceous beds of Kansas and Nebraska, together with 
descriptions of some new species of Carboniferous fossils from the valley of 
Kansas river. 
BY F. B. MEEK AND E, V. HAYDEN. 
The Cretaceous system as developed in Nebraska, is clearly divisible into five 
distinct formations, which have, for the sake of convenience, been numbered 
1, 2, 3, &c., from the base upwards. Although at first entertaining some doubts 
as to whether No. 1, or the lowest formation, might not be older than Creta- 
ceous, we always placed it provisionally, in our published sections, in the Cre- 
taceous system. More recently, after a careful review of the subject, we became 
satisfied from the modern affinities of numerous dicotyledonous leaves found in 
this formation, that we hazarded little in regarding it as a settled question that 
it could not be older than Cretaceous, and so expressed ourselves in our paper 
read before the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, March, 1858. 
The reference of this formation to the Cretaceous, however, was not without 
some exceptions generally admitted, for Professor Jules Marcou, in his work on 
the " Geology of North America," page 143, refers it to the New Red Sandstone, 
and in a subsequent publication,- he places it in the Jurassic ; while some in- 
vestigators in this country also inclined to the opinion that it must be Triassic. 
In the midst of these conflicting opinions, although satisfied we were right, we 
wished, in order to remove all doubts from the minds of others, to have the 
opinion of some good authority in fossil botany, (a department of palseontolo- 
*]N"otes pour server a une description geologique des Montagues Rochenses, page 20. 
[Dec. 
