In case of the building of the railroad from Helena to Great Falls, a considerable collection of plants was made in the cuttings near the latter town, about which Dr. Hayden made a considerable collection of plants from the Kootanie of the Cascade coal basin. of the Canadian Rockies, reported on by Sir William Daw-. Ward, from a number of places in Cascade County, Montana, largely in the vicinity of the Geyser staging station and about forty miles southeast of Great Falls.
The Kootanie flora contains species occurring in the Upper Jurassic, the Wealden in England, the Kome in Greenland, and the Lower Potomac in Virginia, but in view of the fact that no traces of angiosperms have so far been discovered in the Kootanie, , although it occurs in the lower Potomac, would agreed with Newberry that Kootanie is slightly older than. The following is a complete list of the places from which the material included in the following report comes from:. KNOWLTON] KOOTAXIE PLANTS FROM GREAT FALLS, MONTANA III bifurcated before terminating at apex of lobes or teeth.
For example, it is certainly generically similar to Acrostochopteris parvifolia Font.1 although it is much larger and has the teeth of the lobes larger and sharper. It is possible that this is only a highly colored form of, for example, Cladophlebis constricta Font.1, although in Cladophlebis the pinnules are supposed to be attached with their entire bases, whereas in the one under consideration the attachment is probably only a small portion of the base is. At first it was supposed that they must represent a small, very narrow-leaved Tccuioptcris, but the bifurcation of the veins seems near the midrib.
I have not seen this material, but based on the drawing alone I definitely believe it should be referred to Olcandra.
KNOWLTON] KOOTANI3 PLANTS FROM GREAT I- ALLS, MONTANA 115 the specimens the spaces between the veins are filled with the minute
KNOWLTON] KOOTANI3 PLANTS FROM GREAT I-ALLS, MONTANA The specimens fill the spaces between the veins by the minute. 50 The author placed this form among the ferns and especially compared it with the living Platycerium. The next species in time is Protorhipis asarifolia, described in 1865 by Zigno,1 from the Jurassic (Oolite) of Italy.
It is almost circular in plan, deeply kidney-shaped at the base, and the edges are perfectly complete; this has also been posted. In his last article on the Mesozoic flora of Portugal, published in 1894, Saporta gave full descriptions and figures of his remarkable and in some respects anomalous Protorhipis chhoffatif, which comes from the Urgonian of Cereal. It is very different from the forms previously referred to in Protorhipis, and has, as he suggests, a rather striking resemblance to certain bracts, stipules, or involucres of some angiosperms, as well as to certain ferns, such as Platycerium.
In the same paper6, Saporta took the opportunity to describe and figure a very fragmentary specimen from Bjuf, Sweden, presented to him by Nathorst, under the name Protorhipis uathorstii. It is too imperfect to admit of a very accurate diagnosis, and most probably belongs to some of the forms of this or the allied genus, Hausmannia, already described from those beds. KNOWLTON] KOOTANIE PLANTS FROM GREAT FALLS, MONTANA 117The genus Hausmannia, introduced by Dunker,1 in 1846, from a.
KNOWLTON] KOOTANIE PLANTS FROM GREAT FALLS, MONTANA 117 The genus Hausmannia, instituted by Dunker, 1 in 1846, from an
With imperfect or fragmentary material it may sometimes be difficult to distinguish between Protorhipis and Hausmannia, and the possibility that the generic distinctness does not exist is admitted; but with good material it should not be so. Although the nervation appears to be the same in both Andrae's and Zeiller's specimens from Steierdorf, judging from the figures given by both authors, it is. The question now comes of the position of what I have here called Protorhipis Ushcri.
The nervousness in the three above-mentioned forms, when they can be made out, is quite different from that of typical P. It may be necessary to establish a new genus for the leaves under consideration, in the event that the typical forms of Protorhipis are indisputably proved to be indistinguishable from Hausmannia. XNOWLTON] KOOTANIE PLANTS FROM GREAT FALLS, MONTANA IIQ next described forms of Protorhipis and the living Dipteris.
XNOWLTON] KOOTANIE PLANTS FROM GREAT FALLS, MONTANA IIQ subsequently described forms of Protorhipis and the living Dipteris
ORDER EQUISETACE^E
KNOWXTON] KOOTANIE PLANTS FROM GREAT FALLS, MONTANA 121
Newberry was unable to mark the nerve in the leaflet, as the nerves were " sunken into the parenchyma," but in one of the specimens before me, which is remarkably well preserved, there always appear to be four strong nerves, among which are a large number of weak very fine nerves. In some cases the specimens are so well preserved that the actual epidermal substance of the leaflet is preserved as a thin, delicate, carbonaceous layer, which can often be removed almost entirely. In the irregularity of the cellular outline, the character and disposition of the stomata, etc., they agree very closely with similar structures described in various fossil cicadas,1 but Dr.
Mann drew my attention to the fact that the structure is completely different from that of some living species to which plants are supposed to be related. Professor Fontaine based his type on a drawing of a single impression, and as this was preserved so that the underside of the leaf was uppermost, the insertion of the leaflets was hidden by the thick center. It was therefore impossible to decide whether the species should be referred to Zamites or Ptcrophyllum; but as it turned out.
KNOWI/TON] KOOTANIF PLANTS FROM GREAT FALLS, MONTANA 123;
124 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 50
ORDER GINKGOACE^
There are a number of small specimens (cf. plate xiv, figs. 1,2) which are absolutely indistinguishable from Ginkgo polaris Nathorst1, except in the possession of a long, strong petiole. Habcllata Lord; so that, as he naively adds, "there is the temptation to class some fragments with one species, some with the other." As the more perfect examples seem to differ from either in the petiole which was not so long or strong, he decided to give it a separate name. Since the specimens under consideration are otherwise indistinguishable, the fact that they have a relatively long and very strong petiole may properly exclude them from G.
In his first paper on the Great Falls Coalfield, Newberry described a deeply lobed leaf as Baicra brcvifolia, comparing it particularly with B. Finally, I may add that I have given on the plate a number of figures showing the normal and extremes exposed. and while she. Fisher also noted, but did not collect, this species in front of the smelter, on the south bank of the Missouri River at Great Falls.
ORDER CONIFERS
CONIFEROUS LEAVES?
EXPLANATION OF PLATES
