Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology11893univ).pdf/318

In the interpretation and elaboration of the author's last notes, some of which were fragmentary, and written after the lamented writer was unfit for work, as well as in interpreting and rearranging the extensive additions or modifications to the manuscript, Professor Knowlton, the editor, has shown great discretion, making no alterations or enlargements other than those necessary to the expression of the author's intended meaning, or for priority or consistency, such alterations being indicated by brief foot-notes. To him we are also indebted for a valuable tabulation of the geological and geographical distribution of the species, a compilation involving much time and consultation of the literature of the science.

It is unfortunate that those plates with washed drawings, made under Professor Lesquereux's personal supervision for the lithographer, should have, for financial reasons, been sacrificed, even though the photo-gravure work is of good quality. Much distinctness of the nervation is lost, as may be noted in a comparison with the last plates in the volume, prepared especially for the cheaper process. Although, as in too many of the paleontological publications of the United States Geological Survey, the date on the title page is earlier than the actual publication of the work, the date (1892) on the outside page is, in this instance, correct.

The distinguished author of this short paper died in 1889, yet the evidences of his untiring energy are still coming to hand. This paper, bears internal evidence of having been prepared about the time of the completion of his Flora of the Dakota Group, which has likewise only just been published. It is prefaced by a short interesting account of the introduction and development of plant-life, illustrated by a wealth of examples and statistics.

Cretaceous fossil plants have been known from Minnesota for many years, in fact, several species were obtained by members of the Hayden survey, but this is the first complete systematic review of them. They come mostly from New Ulm, in Redwing Co., and Goodhue township in Goodhue Co. The amount of material examined was very scanty, there having been but fifty-five specimens, yet the richness of the flora is shown by the fact that there are twenty-eight species. Of this num-