Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1917 — SOME LONG-VANISHED PLANTS [ARTICLE]

SOME LONG-VANISHED PLANTS

Flora Which Flourished Millions of Years Ago in America Described in Government Report. The area known as the Mississippi embayment is a low-lying region which has alternately been submerged and emerged since the Cretaceous time — known as the Age of Reptiles, over 5.000.000 years ago. It embraces roughly 1,500 square miles. In past geologic ages this region doubtless furnished congenial habitats for several thousand specific types of plants of which we can never hope to know more than a small number. Nearly all these types have irrevocably vanished and this vast area is tenanted today by an entirely new set of plants. The United States geological survey, department of the Interior, has recently published a scientific report by E. Wrßerry; describing some of these long-vanished plants’the fossil remains of which are found today in many of the rock formations. The report gives a systematic description of more than 300 species, in what is known as the Wilcox and Midway formations. The Wilcox flora is made up almost entirely of plants that lived along the ancient coast, on the strand, am ang lagoons and sand dunes. The physical conditions under which the plants lived are discussed, and conclusions are drawn regarding the climate of the Eocene period compared with that of today in the same region.