2 FLORA OF THE MONTANA FORMATION. 
ver beds, by Cross and Eldridge, in Colorado, and of the Livingston 
beds, by Weed, in Montana. It thus becomes necessary to readjust the 
lower and upper limits of the so-called Laramie series. For present 
purposes the fixing of the lower limit of the Laramie is of most impor- 
tance, and will receive prominent attention. 
Most of the typical localities in which the complications mentioned 
have arisen are in eastern and central Wyoming, in eastern Utah, and 
at various places in Colorado. These localities have been frequently 
visited and studied by geologists, but not since much of the important 
work of differentiation has been accomplished; and with the view of 
ascertaining the bearing of this newer information on the problems 
in question, Mr. T. W. Stanton and I spent the field season of 1896 in 
a restudy of this general area. The results of our investigations were 
presented in a joint paper entitled Stratigraphy and Paleontology of 
the Laramie and Related Formations in Wyoming. 1 The general 
conclusion is reached, following the example of King, Hay den, and 
others, that the base of the true Laramie in the Rocky Mountain 
region should be placed at the top of the Fox Hills, or in other words 
that nothing below the marine Cretaceous should be regarded as 
Laramie. While this view has some objections, as, for example, the 
difficulty sometimes experienced in locating the exact top of the Fox 
Hills, it seems, on the whole, simple and most logical, since if all the 
Upper Cretaceous coals were included there would be a practical aban- 
donment of the Laramie as a distinct series, and a return to the old 
Lignitic group, which, as already stated, included all the coals of the 
region. The Montana formation or division is thus made to include 
certain intercalated beds carrying important coal veins, a quite exten- 
sive land flora, and occasional brackish and fresh-water mollusks. 
This flora, which embraces at least 80 species, has for many years been 
regarded as a true Laramie flora. 
The localities within the Montana formation which have afforded the 
most extensive flora will be first considered. They are located in 
southwestern Wyoming, along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, 
and in northeastern Utah, in the vicinity of Coalville. These localities 
have been often visited by geologists, and have given rise to much 
discussion. 
The geologists connected with the exploration along the fortieth par- 
allel appear to have been the first to call attention 2 to the fact that the 
Fox Hills beds, as exposed within this area, embrace numerous coal 
seams and sandstones containing abundant plant remains, as they con 
stantly found above them beds containing characteristic marine inverte- 
brates. This view did not, however, obtain very wide acceptance, or. 
rather, recognition, which was doubtless largely due to the difficulty 
in fixing the upper limit of the Fox Hills beds. In this way the coa 
' Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. VIII, pp. 127-156 (1896). 
2 U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Parallel, Vol. II, pp. 85 et seq. (1877) ; Vol. I, pp. 320 et seq. (1878). 
