An Expedition to Mount St. Elias, AlaskaRussell, Israel C. (Cook)
History
An Expedition to Mount St. Elias, Alaska
Russell, Israel C. (Cook)
Alaska -- Description and travel; Saint Elias, Mount (Alaska and Yukon)
"The collection consists of seven small hand specimens, upon which are
impressed no less than seventeen more or less completely preserved
dicotyledonous leaves.
"These specimens at first sight seem to represent six or eight
species, but after a careful study I think I am safe in reducing the
number to four, as several of the impressions have been nearly
obliterated by prolonged exposure and cannot be studied with much
satisfaction.
"The four determinable species belong, without much doubt, to the
genus _Salix_. Number 1, of which there is but a single specimen, I
have identified with _Salix californica_, Lesquereux, from the
auriferous gravel deposits of the Sierra Nevada in California.[38] The
finer nervation of the specimens from the auriferous gravels is not
clearly shown in Lesquereux's figures, nor is it well preserved in the
Mount St. Elias specimens; but the size, outline, and primary
nervation are identical.
"Number 2, of which there are six or eight specimens, may be compared
with _Salix raeana_, Heer,[39] a species that was first described from
Greenland and was later detected by Lesquereux in a collection from
Cooks inlet, Alaska.[40] The Mount St. Elias specimens are not very
much like the original figures of Heer, but are very similar, in
outline at least, to this species as figured by Lesquereux.[41] They
are also very similar to {200} some forms of the living _S. rostrata_,
Richardson, with entire leaves. It is clearly a willow, but closer
identification must remain for more complete material.
"Number 3, represented by four or five specimens, is broadly
elliptical in outline, and is also clearly a _Salix_. It is unlike any
fossil form with which I am familiar, but is very similar to the
living _S. nigricans_, For., var. _rotundifolia_, and to certain forms
of _S. silesiaca_, Willd. The nervation is very distinctly preserved,
and has all the characters of a willow leaf.
"Number 4, represented by three or four very fine specimens, is a very
large leaf, measuring 13 cm. in length and 3½ cm. in width at the
broadest point. It may be compared with _Salix macrophylla_, Heer,[42]
but it cannot be this species. It is also like some of the living
forms of _S. nigra_, Marsh., from which it differs in having perfectly
entire margins.
"While it is manifestly impossible, on the basis of the above
identifications, to speak with confidence as to the age or formation
containing these leaves, it can hardly be older than the Miocene, and
from its strong resemblance to the present existing flora of Alaska it
is likely to be much younger." [F. H. Knowlton.]
Very sincerely yours,
LESTER F. WARD.
[Footnote 38: Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. VI, no. 2, 1878, p. 10, pl.
i, figs. 18-21.]
[Footnote 39: Flor. foss. Arct., vol. I, 1868, p. 102, pl. iv, figs.
11-13; pl. xlvii, fig. 11.]
[Footnote 40: Proc. Nat. Mus., vol. V, 1882, p. 447.]
[Footnote 41: loc. cit., pl. viii, fig. 6.]
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