IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET {MT-3) 1.0 Hi I.I ^ us, III 2.0 1.8 Photographic Sciences Corporation 1.25 |J4 liL 4 6" » 4 M !\ i\ ^31 V \ [v «^ 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716) 872-4503 °^> :^-. -^^ 6^ '^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notas/Notas techniquas at bibliographiquas Tha Instituta has attamptad to obtain tha bast original copy availabia for filming. 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Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certainas pages blanches ajoutias lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans la texte, mais, lorsque cela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont pas Ati filmtas. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6x^ possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exeiroiplaira qui sont peut-Atre uniques du point de vua bibliographiqua, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite. ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la m6thoda normale de filmaga sont indiquAs ci-dessous. □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur □ Pages damaged/ Pages endommagies □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaur^as et/ou pellicul^es 7^ Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es, tachetdes ou piqu6es rri Pages detached/ D Pages ddtachdes Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of prir Qualiti indgale de I'impression Includes supplementary matarii Comprand du mat6riel supplrgen ; also in th(> Upper Laramie of Porcupine^ Creek (G. M. D.) and in the Fort Union group of Dakota. (Newberry). Sequoia L.^nctSDORFII, Broni^t. — This species is very widely distributed in time and space, if all the forms referred to it are really of one species. It ranges from the Upper Cretaceous into the Miocene, and in reality is not very remote in its char- acters from the living Sequoia sem/terrireiis of Calil'ornia, which may be a modern variety. It occurs in Greenland, in the Laramie of various places in the United States, and is widely distributed in Europe, lioth leafy twigs and remains of cones occur in the Mackenzie collections. In the Belly River Group of Canada, the species S. Reiclieiihachii^ replaces it, and the speines referred to *S'. Laugsdor/ii from the Upper Cretaceous of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, ai)pears to bi' S. Smithiana, ^ which also occurs in the Kootanie of the Rocky Mountains. It seems therefore uncertain if in Canada it is as old as the Cretaceous, and it may in any case be regarded as specially characteristic of the Upper Laramie or Eocene flora. Taxites Olrikt, Heer. — This large and beautiful Taxine plant occurs in the Eoceiu^ of Europe, and is found also in Alaska and in Greenland. It is abundant in the collections o*"Dr. Selwyu from Souris River, described by me in the Report of the Geological Survi'y of Canada (1879-80). ' It does not seem as yet to have been recognized in the United States, and is prol)ably a distinctively northern form. It is said by Schiniper to resemble closely a species of Cephalotaxus found in China and Japan. Platanus aoeroides, Heer. — This is th(^ Eocene representative of the niodfrn Platamts occiden/ulis of America, to which it is very nearly allied. It occurs in the Tertiary C N ' Flora of Cretftcoous of Uritisli Columbia and Noitliwest Torritory, Trans. R. S. C, 1882. '' Me.sozoic Flora of Rocky Mouiitiiiiis, Truiis. H. S. C, 1885. Fossil Plants of Laramie, Tnius. H. S. C, 1880. ON FOSSIL PLANTS. 71 ol" Europe as high as the Miocene of Oeniugeu, and is found in the leaf beds of Mull, that is if, as seems likely, the P. Hebridicus of Forbes is this species. It also occurs at Alanekerdluk in Greenland, in Iceland and in Spitzbergen. It seems probable that P. Gvlielma, Goept, is merely a variety. It occurs with the former in Switzerland and Greenland. Farther, Schimper suggests Ihat P. Rni/noldsii and P. IlaydeniV of Lesquereux, both Upper Laramie species, and found plentifully in the sandstones on Bow River, near Calgary, may be varieties of this somewhat variable species. ToPULUS AR0TIC.\, Ileer. {V\. X, Figs 2, 3 & 4.)— This is much the most abundant species in Mr. McConnell's collection, aud seems to show that then, as now, this genus was dominant. This is an European as well as American and Greenland speiies, aud presents a great variety in the size aiul forms of the leaves, which have giv«'n rise to the formation of several species. Mr. McConnell's specimens show a great number ol gradations in form, from broad oval to a very broad reniform, and in size from one inch to four in diameter. Its occurrence in the Laramie of Western Canada is noticed in my paper as Laramie Plants, (Trans. Hoy. Soc. Can., 1886). There seems to be some \incertainty as to the leference of this leaf to Popidus. Saporta, thinks that it may really be a Menospermum allied to the modern M. virginiaim. If a poplar, it is remarkable that its nearest living ally seems to be P. Euphratica of the banks of the Euphrates and Jordan. PoPULUS HooKERi, Hecr. (PI. X, Fig. 5).— This species, found thus far only at Mackenzie Kiver, has small leaves, resembling those of P. arclica in form, but differing some- what in venation, in which it approaches slightly to P. tremuloides, the common aspen. ^ PopuLUS ElCHARDSONii, Heer. — A large and fine species, quite different from the preced- ing, and allied to the modern aspens. It is found in the Fort Union Laramie of the United States, and in the Greenland and Spitzbergen collections, also in Canada in the Upper Laramie, on liow River. Its nearest relation in modern Canada is P. grandtdenlata, the great-toothed aspen, the leaves of young shoots of which species greatly resemble those of the ancient form. - CoRYLUS McQuABRii, Forbes.—ThiH species is found in the Mull leaf-beds and elsewhere in Europe, also in Alaska, Iceland, Spitzbergen and Greenland, and in the Upper Laramie of the western plains, both in Canada and the United States, though it" seems to be less common than further north. Further south than Mackenzie River, this species is associated with leaves not distinguishable from those of the modern hazel, C. roslrala. - NouDENSKuLinA ROREAUS, lleer. (PI. X, Fig. 6).— This is a beautiful fruit, divided into lobes at top, and supposed to be allied to Tiliaceae. These fruits occur in Greenland and Spitzbergen, and have been di.s(overed by Mr. McConnell for the first time in Canada. It is by some referred to ihe genus Cisti/s or to Dioapyws. ' Fossil Plants of Laraiiiio. Troiis. R. S. C, 1880. ■ Ibid. 72 SIR W. DAWSON In couuoctiou with the roferencc of this fruit to Tiliaceae, it io worthy of note that Saporta inclines to the l^elief that the previous species may bi'long not to a hazel bnt to a Tilia or linden. Oaupolithes. — Ov^al, flattened hodies, probably seeds or fruits, about one centimetre in length, and without distinct markings. They may be seeds possibly of Taxites, but their affinities for the present must remain uncertain, and I do not give them a specific name, in hope of additional facts being discovered. Pyiutized and Feuruginous Wood. — The collec^^ion contains several branches and por- tions of stems evidently of Exogenous trees, but in a state of preservation which does not admit of distinct deti'rmiuation. Schroeter, as already stated, has des- cribed fossil wood from these beds, one species of which, his Sequoia Canadensis, may be the wood of Seqv.oia Langsdurl/ii, another is not improbably that of Platanus Ungeri, Another of his species of fossil wood is referred to the genus GinKgo, but it may have belonged to Taxiles Olriki. Legui\iinosites (?) BOUEALis, S. N. {V\. X, Fig. Y). — Pods of unequally obovate form, apparently arranged on the tddes of a stem. They are grooved or ribbed longitu- dinally, and resemble L. arachioides, Lesq., except in their smaller size and broader form. One shows whit seems to be the remains of a sheath or calyx. Callistemophylli m latum, S. N. (PI. X, Fig. 8).— Leaf entire, obovate, without petiole. Midrib di.'' '. 'i~ secondary veins obsolete ; indications of delicate reticulation. This is probabi;. Myrtaceous leaf and may, provisionally at least, be pi. ^ed in the genus above named. It seems quite different from the other described species. II. Mr. Weston's Collections from the Laramie of Bow River. With the above specimens from Mackenzie River, there have been placed in my hands some interesting leaves collected by Mr. Weston in the Upper Laramie sandstones, near Calgary. They belong to two specii's, Populus Richardsonii and Quercus phUaraa of Heer, (PI. XI, Fig. 7). The leaves of the former species are chiefly remarkable for their large size, but iu other respects are similar to those of Mackenzie River. The latter species is represented by leaA'es of great size. One of them must, when perfect, have been at least ten inches in length withoiit the petiole. This species has not yet been found at Mackenzie River, but is one of those common to the United States Laramie and that of Canada, and found also in G-reenlaud. As the species seems to be variable, and Heer had only fragments in his collections, I figure a small, but perfect, specimen in Mr. Weston's collection. Hchimper regards the place of this species iu lUe genus Qnercns a;-; " fort contestable ", and it is quite possible that when its fruit shall be known, il may be found to have different affinities. It was evidently one of the most magnificent ot the Laramie species in point of foliage. Its leaves are in some points not unlike those borne on vigorous, young shoots of Til in Americana, though narrower in proportion to their breadth. ON FOSSIL i'LANTS. 78 III. GrENERAL REMARKS. The general coiirlusiou iudicaled by the above facts is the strong rcsembhuice ol' tJie Hora of the Mackenzie River beds with that of the Laramie of other parts of Canada and of the United States, and also with 'lie Tertiary of Greenland, Spitsbergen, Alaska and tlie Hebrides. They thus coniirni the inferences as to this similarity, and as to the Lower Eocene age of tiie Upi)er Laramie, stated by the author in "The Report on the 49th parallel " in 187-3, in subsequent ' Reports of the Geological Survey,' aud in previous volumes of these Transactions. It is to be ob.served, in connection with this, that recent observations iu the western parts of the United States by Mr. Whitman Cross and others, lead to the conclusion that, locally, plants of Middle Tertiary age have been inadvertently mixed with those of the true Jiaramie, and that this has tended to mislead pala3obotanists. Farther, it seems ])ro- bable that due attention has not been paid to the distinction of the Lower Laramie and the Upper, or to the separation of the former from the IJelly River series of the Upper Cretaceous, vvhich has a very similar ilora. It is also quite possible that the line between the Eocene and the Upper Cretaceous may ultimately be drawn, as I have suggested in a previous paper, between the Upper and Lower Laramie. The intervention, in the Northwest Teiritories ov Canada, of a, thick series of barren beds of red clay, and the aihnities of the Lower Lnramie Ilora with that of the Upper Cretaceous, certainly tend to this conclusion. In the mean time there can scarcely be any doubt that the flora of the Upper Laramie, of the Atauekerdluk series in Greenland, and of the Spitzbi^rgc-n and Alaskan Tertiarics. corresponds with that of the Eocene in I'lurope, and i.s also identical with the l''ort Union Ilora of the Mi^sou^i region, formerly regarded as Miocene. On these points and as to the evidence of the stratigraphical position of the Laramie between the Cretaceous and the Ijower Miocene, I would refer to previous papers in these Transactions. Lastly, it is worthy of note that while the Gier'ulaud ilora of this age is teinpLU-ate, thai; of th(^ temperate reu'ious of America is of the same character aud closely allied to that now extant, showing that the conditions of temperature were those of great uniformity over a wide range of latitude rathtn- than of excessive heat iu the north. This leads to the inference that the causes of the mild Arctic temp.n-aturc were geographical rather than astronomical, a conclusion which I have elsewhere stated and maintained. While the above pa])i'i' was in the press, I roeoivcil the inoinnirs of Xatlior-f oa tho Toi'tiary Flora of .lapiiii, and of I'lttiiinslriusoa on (hat of Now Soath Wales. Those suifgost Homo very inlercstiiiL;- coinparisoiis. The early Tertiary h'lora of Japan coini'iilos in many spocio^ with the I'ppor Ijiirainio i''iora of llio liohriiles, (ireenland, Xorthern Canu'la, Alaska ami Sa!j,'hal ion, indicating tlu- [irovalonci? in later (Jrotaceous and caidy Focene times of a similar Ilora throughout the Xorthoni Sec. IV, 1S89. 10, 74 SIE W. DAWSON ON I'^OSSIL PLANTS. Hcminphorc. Kvon in Australia Uio early Tertiary flora includes many typos now foreign to that country, but resembling those of Upper (/rotacoous ago in tho North, and thus indicating a much greater uniformity in 'lioo times than at present, or jicihaps that a flora orii^inating in the North had already in tho Enceno spread int) the Southern Jlemisphcio. In i;onciali/ing on these sultjccts, Ktti:igshauscn regards them too much from the point of view of local evolution rather than of migia- tion, and docs not sufflciently rocogni/.e tho great anli(|nity of modern types in the Northern llemisphoro, and tho certainty that, in tho \icissitudoH of climate in geological time, there have hccn many great transpoi-tations of floras from north to sou'.h, ami from south to north. The time is rapidly approaching when these great f|UestionH will meet with adcqiiato answers; but the accumula- tion of facts is pcarcely as v'it t-uffi 'lent. Ktfingshausen's specimens wore unfortunately somowliat fragmentary, but I have received from Bi.ron von Muoller a small collection of fos>>il fruits which show some curious American affinities in tho Tertiary period.