Triasnc Flora of Richmond. — Marcou. 161 
Dr. Newberry in his review of "Geological equivalents of our 
Triassic rocks," {Man. cit. p. 8) says : "A single one of the 
abundant fossil plants which occur in the Richmond coal 
basin would, however, have been sufficient to show the error of 
this opinion." This remark is unjust, and at the same time a 
gross exaggeration of what was then the status of our knowl- 
edge of palseophytology. No one was more anxious to make 
application of the test of organic remains, in determining the 
age of the rocks than Taylor, "an original disciple of William 
Smith," as he calls himself in his very remarkable book, 
Statistics of Coal, p. 46, Philadelphia, 1848. Adolphe 
Brongniart, the true founder of palseophytology, in his 
Vegetaux fossils, in course of publication, 1828-1837, had 
referred a fossil plant from Richmond to the Calamites 
suckowii, a characteristic species of the Coal Measures of 
England, Wales and Pennsylvania, only he made a variety of 
it, and it was not until many years afterward that it was 
proved to be a new species and even a new genus, Sohizoneura 
Schimper (Soh. planicostata) , instead of being only a variety of 
Calamites suckowii. Nuttal many years before, 1820, in the 
"Journal Acad. Nat. Sciences," Philadelphia, vol. ii, part i, 
p. 36 of his excellent paper. Observations on the geological 
structure of the valley of the Mississippi, had recognized 
Zamia ox Cycas,Equiseta and Scitaminem from the coal basin 
of Richmond, as well as remains of fossil fishes ; at a time when 
the significance of palseontological characters was in its infancy, 
and before the material possibility of appreciating it existed ; 
for we must remember that in 1816, when Nuttal made his 
observations round Richmond, we possessed neither of the 
fundamental works of Adolphe Brongniart,and Louis Agassiz. 
And if to-day it is easy, with a single plant of Richmond to 
show the error of the opinions expressed in 1834 by Taylor, it 
is due to the studies of two and even three generations of 
palseotophylogists. Even with our present knowledge it is not. 
always easy to determine with accuracy the age of a coal bed^ 
with only one and even seven species of plants, as is amply 
proved by the "Jurassic florula" of Dr. Newberry, found by 
him at the Moquis Pueblo in 1858, which he referred first to- 
the Jura, then to the Trias, and now passed over without any 
notice, in Mon. cit., as if it did not exist, showing plainly 
enough that Dr. Newberry does not know what to do with it 
