distinguishable in the paddle. Strangest of all, a considerable group of these wonderful reptiles lengthened their little fingers, sometimes to three or four feet in length, and had a skin stretched from these fingers over to the body in such a fashion as to give them wings not unlike those of the bat. In the wing of the bat, however, four of the fingers of the hand run through the membrane and support it. In the pterodactyl, as these flying reptiles are called, the middle finger supports the web, while the remaining fingers can still be used to clasp objects or serve the animal to lift himself, as the bat can do with his thumbs. Meanwhile an entire change is coming over the plant world. The last third of this age of reptiles is known as the Cretaceous or chalk period. Now, for the first time, the forests begin to take on more of the character of our forests of to-day. Plants like our willow and beech, poplar and sassafras appear in great abundance. Their broad leaves serve better than those of any earlier plants to catch the sunlight. But in addition they offered such effective evaporating surface that they cast off rapidly the moisture obtained from the ground by the plant. Accordingly in the winter season, when the water in the ground is frozen and not available for plant purposes, they were forced to throw away their leaves. It is quite possible that up to and including the time of the Carboniferous, plants were all evergreen. There had been before this little variation in climate over the globe. Life in the Cretaceous begins to take on distinctly its modern form. Among the reptiles of the forest there appear to have been a few small creatures which to an observer of those times, if there could have been an observer, would have seemed of the utmost insignificance compared with their giant cousins.