Memoirs MCZ 0602

tmaixs of % Uluswm of dfomparatiiw ^oolajgg AT HARVARD COLLEGE Vol VI No REPORT FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE AURIFEROUS GRAVEL DEPOSITS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA By LEO LESQUEREUX WITH TEN PLATES CAMBRIDGE: JOHN WILSON AND tHnibcrsitg %)xcbs 1878 SON REPORT ON THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE AURIFEROUS GRAVEL DEPOSITS OF THE SIERRA NEVADA By LEO LESQUEREUX WITH TEN PLATES CAMBRIDGE: UNIVERSITY PRESS, JOHN WILSON AND SON 1878 University Press : John Wilson and Son, Cambridge INTRODUCTORY NOTE During the first three years of the existence of the Geological Survey of California, large collections of specimens were made in various parts of the State, and especially in the mining districts of the Sierra Nevada Unfortunately these were in part destroyed by rial thus lost was a fine suite of fire, and among the mate- leaves from the beds underlying fossil the volcanic deposits of the west slope of the Sierra, and associated with the auriferous The so gravels extensively worked thus incurred was in part loss my at plants placed made good by by Mr disposal by the hydraulic D C Voy process a collection of fossil of Oakland, the speci- mens thus furnished forming a portion of the large collection purchased afterwards from Mr Voy, and presented to the State University of Caliliberality of Mr D by the fornia mens in reux for description, locality of will full to speci- formation in which "Memoir on which the to best, Lesquereux, as of the it these fossil occur plants the Auriferous Gravel Deposits Nevada," which will shortly be Sierra myself, at the prolific Bluffs account of the been thought history The added some other materials of these were by Mr Gorham Blake and obtained Chalk volume the and be found in the writer's of the San Francisco question were subsequently placed in the hands of Mr Lesque- value, chiefly A Mills of paper herewith published presented as Part belongs I It of has however, not to delay the issue of the paper of Mr forms a nearly independent contribution to the geological Sierra Nevada, and marks an important addition to our knowledge of the epoch immediately preceding the present one giving as it does a clew to the vegetation, in later Tertiary times, of an exten- INTRODUCTOEY NOTE iv sive region of the western edge of our continent a worthy and most desirable supplement to the of which one volume has been now This paper also offers " Botany of California," the other and already published, while All the volumes and memoirs above concluding one is mentioned are to be received as a continuation, in part, of the the Geological Survey, stopped by the Legislature in 1874 in the press work of Permission has been given to the late State Geologist by the Board of Regents of the University of California, in whose hands the matter was tinue the publication of the Survey so far as so ; and whom was in his to con- power to somewhat arduous undertaking he has received valuable from some of the liberal-minded citizens of San Francisco, to in- assistance it left, this he takes this opportunity of tendering his best thanks J D WHITNEY Dear Sir You : — herewith the report on the specimens of will please find you have intrusted to me fossil plants which for examination These vegetable remains represent merely leaves which, embedded in a fine-grained whitish clay or soapstone, are generally, for their outlines at least, in a very good state of preservation County gives acter to is, The areolation of those however, generally rendered obsolete from the Chalk Bluffs of Nevada by a coat of varnish, which also them an apparent thickness which may not represent their natural charThe words "coriaceous" and " subcoriaccous," used in the description of these leaves, might therefore be taken with some degree of uncertainty However, comparing the leaves of Mr Voy's collection which have been varnished with of the same locality belonging to yourself, and those also of Tuolumne in those County which have been all left in their original state of preservation, the texture of appears of the same consistence Except the specimens which are your own property, name of the Voy all the others, under the Collection, belong to the University of California, and have been returned to that institution Very respectfully yours, L To Prof J I) Whitney, Cambridge, Mass LESQUEREUX DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES MONOCOTYLEDONES PALM.SJ SABALITES, Sternb Sabalites Californicus, PI I Fig sp nov Fragment of a frond with rays of large size, carinate in the lower uptcards ; primary nerves broad and obtuse, secondary veins four at equal distance, with three or four obsolete interim diatt The fragment represents the middle part of a rachis is unknown The uncertain men, where taken Its rays, altogether, gradually twelve nearly large palmate leaf, whose Flabellaria is lower part of the specifourteen millimeters, both sides distinctly carinate in measure they to five, r< inlets Sabal or to to relation, therefore, part, flattened to the widen upwards and become flattened, meas- uring twenty-two millimeters at the top of the specimen, which is about twelve centimeters both ways The lower part, therefore, has the appear- ance of a fragment of Sabal, The those of Flabellaria while the rays are in rays flattened upward resemble whole length their distinctly sepa- by the primary nerves, somewhat thicker than the secondary ones, convex at the top of the ridges and concave at the bottom of the carina? The secondary veins, a little more than one milli- rated meter into equal distant, parts are also smooth epidermis, and separated The absence of the with fossil Habitat somewhat broad when seen through the by three rachis with this or four indistinct veinlcts specimen prevents any comparison species of Palms — Chalk Bluffs, thin, Nevada County Professor J D Whitney FOSSIL FLORA OF THE SIEEEA NEVADA DICOTYLEDONES AMENTACE^J BETULA, L Betula aequalis, PI Leaves elliptical-ovate, equally I Figs narrowed up to sp nov 2-4 a sharp point and downward to a short petiole ; borders equally dentate; secondary veins mostly simple, craspedodrome The form of the leaves from their size, hy is the same in all the specimens, differing only eight centimeters long, and from two to three five to The secondary veins and a half centimeters broad curving in passing up to the either slightly are mostly simple, borders in an of divergence of 30° or straight, entering the alternate acute angle teeth and some- times the intermediate ones by short branches, as in Fig The lower pair of lateral veins join the middle nerve a little above the base of the which generally bordered, at least on one side, by a thin marginal veinlet they are parallel, equidistant, opposite in the lower part of the leaves, alternate in the upper part, generally separated by a thin leaves, is ; below the middle of the areas; the teeth, nearly equal, are sharp, and slightly turned upwards tertiary vein dissolved The relation of this the to present Betula occidentalis, Hook., found the of the streams commonly along Eocky Mountains, is very close indeed The nervation is the same the nearly equal teeth are, in some leaves at least, of the same form and size the difference is only in the shape of the leaves, which in the fossil species are longer, wedge-form species ; ; the to this base, Betula and also proportionally given in Watson's is XXXV Among Ett Fos EL v the fossil Bilin I., p 4i the Miocene of Europe, and has A fine representation Botany of the Fortieth Parallel," of PI comparable to B Brongnarti, XIV Figs 9-13, which is common in species, 46, PI narrow ours is been described also by Heer, Gaudin, and other The Saporta, affinity, however, is more marked palaeontologists with the living American B occidentalis than with any fossil forms known as yet of this genus Habitat — Chalk Bluffs, Nevada County, California Voy's Collection #teicnit;in Ml M M I I ;' , S * I I, S I ( A /, j, — Persea Pseudo-Caroliniensis — Liquidambar Californimm ciiE €m Auriferous Gravel Dep< ® tannine ;an lui^u - of the Sierra Nevada i' ) 4, J- It 12 — Acer —A^er BolanJeri Vitifolium — Platanui Dissecta i v [.!: i tewtm M MiEMtDir.RS ~ywL,~yiz Cssntt (Auriferous Gravel Dep0! 1-8 g 10, II — Zaddachi — Populus Zizyphus microphy —Zizyphus pnperoidts litis ELATK Dfthe SierrsNevudaJ —Rhus —Zanthoxylon 14, 15 12, ij metopioides diversifolium lllusicmvi nf €«i! m i md'i as viji,,\i , ( I /-(5 8, g to — Rhus — Ilex frunifolia — Rhus Boweniana typhinoides —-fuglans Oregotdana AllI'llClDll^ (ilclVf'.l I)C(JO si' •arattiK- Enajfsluii' \'K ofthe Sierra Sevnfl.i > ii.—Juglans laurinea 12 ij 14 —Juglans egregia —Rhus mixta -Juglans Californica n Ittsnim &f v| HMD! Kii "VIDX.TX €aitst (Auriferous Gravel i.—Juglans egi-egia 2,j.—Juglans Californica Depo 8- 'KUTTK JO of the Sierra Nevada.) 4, j, 6-u — Platanus dissecta — Cercocarpus antiquus, ... also offers " Botany of California," the other and already published, while All the volumes and memoirs above concluding one is mentioned are to be received as a continuation, in part, of the