The principal legacy that the Mesozoic woods have handed down to our time is in some beds of coal, locally important, but of far less extent than those of the Carboniferous period. Still, in America, the Richmond coal-field in Virginia is of this age, and so are the anthracite beds of the Queen Charlotte Islands, on the west coast of Canada, and the coal of Brora in Sutherlandshire. Valuable beds of coal, probably of this age, also exist in China, India, and South Africa; and jet, which is so extensively used for ornament, is principally derived from the carbonised remains of the old Mesozoic pines.
In the next chapter we have to study a revolution in vegetable life most striking and unique, in the advent of the forest-trees of strictly modern types.
NOTE TO CHAPTER V.
I append to this chapter a table showing the plant-bearing series of the Cretaceous and Laramie of North America, from a paper in “Trans. R. S. C,” 1885, which see for further details:
(In Descending Order.)
| Periods. | Floras and sub-floras. | References. | |
| Transition Eocene to Cretaceous. | Upper Laramie or Porcupine Hill. Fort Union group, U. S. territory. |  | Platanus beds of Souris River and Calgary. Report of Geol. Survey of Canada for 1879, and Memoir of 1885. |
| Upper Cretaceous (Danian and Senonian). | Middle Laramie or Willow Creek beds. | ||
| Lower Laramie or St. Mary River. | | Lemna and Pistia beds of bad lands of 49th parallel, Red Deer River, &c., with lignites. Report 49th Parallel and Memoir of 1885. | |
| Fox Hill series | Marine. | ||
| Fort Pierre series | Marine. | ||
| Belly River | | Sequoia and Brasenia beds of S. Saskatchewan, Belly River, &c. with lignites. Memoir of 1885. | |
| Coal measures of Nanaimo, B.C., probably here. | | Memoir of 1883. Many dicotyledons, palms, &c. | |
| Middle Cretaceous (Turonian and Cenomanian). | Dunvegan series of Peace River. Dakota group, U. S. Amboy clays, U. S. | | Memoir of 1883. Many dicotyledons, cycads, &c. |
| Mill Creek beds of Rocky Mountains. | | Dicotyledonous leaves, similar to Dakota group of the U. S. Memoir of 1885. | |
| Lower Cretaceous (Neocomian.&c). | Suskwa River beds and Queen Charlotte Island coal series. Intermediate beds of Rocky Mountains. Potomac series of Virginia. | | Cycads, pines, a few dicotyledons. Report Geol.Survey. Memoir of 1885. |
| Kootanie series of Rocky Mountains. | | Cycads, pines, and ferns. Memoir of 1885. | |
THE REIGN OF ANGIOSPERMS IN THE LATER CRETACEOUS AND KAINOZOIC.