Triassic Flora of Richrtiond. — Marcou. 171 
what discordant conclusions, by Hitchcock, the brothers 
Rogers, Lyell, Marcou and Emmons." {Loc. cit. pp. xi and 
XII.) 
First, Dr. Newberry thinks that "professor Emmons had 
little acquaintance with palaeontology," the most extraordi- 
narily incorrect statement ever made against numerous and 
plain facts. I shall only say that Emmons created the Prim- 
ordial fauna, as a special fauna, in which all his determina- 
tions and descriptions of species and genera are good and 
recognized as such by the two best palaontologic experts for 
palaeozoic animals, Joachinn Barrande and J.W. Salter ; while 
all his adversaries, even to this day, have blundered con- 
stantly and made the most glaring and unexcusable mistakes 
in their attempt at determining Taconic fossils. Dr. Emmons' 
description of the oldest mammalia yet found in the world, 
the Dromathet'ium sylvestre, used Sind aecepted by all palaeon- 
tologists, is another instance of his great acquaintance and 
thorough knowledge of palaeontology. Finally his descrip- 
tion of fossil plants of North Carolina, copied ve7'hatim by 
professor Fontaine, and quoted by all palaeophytologists in 
the world, have inscribed forever Dr. Emmons' name among 
the pioneers and good describers of fossil plants. 
Second, to say that "no systematic collection nor thorough 
study of the fauna or flora of the formation as a whole was 
attempted until about 1880, when Prof. W. M. Fontaine, of 
the University of Virginia, began a careful review of the fossil 
plants of the Virginia and North Carolina Mesozoic coal 
basins," is an unjustifiable attempt to pass over the careful 
researches of all those who have preceded Prof. Fontaine. 
Not only V/. B. Rogers made "s3''stematic collection and 
thorough study of the fauna and flora" of that formation, 
but also Lyell did it, Marcou did it, and Emmons did it, and 
our collections, put together, are far above and much better 
than the one made by Prof. Fontaine, for the very simple 
reason that we were the first collectors, and that some coal 
pits, very rich in fossil plants and fossil fishes, like Gowrie 
and Blackheath, were abandoned long before Prof. Fontaine's 
explorations, and he found there only the remaining broken 
and poor specimens among the rubbish and debris. 
My large collection, sent in 1849 to the Jardin des Plantes 
of Paris, was never published. Adolphe Brongniart scattered 
