MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, ARTS AND PAPERS OF THE MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF LETTERS SCIENCE ARTS AND LETTERS VOLUME XXXVIII VOLUME XXXVIII (1952 Meeting) PART I: BOTANY AND FORESTRY EDITORS PART II: ZOOLOGY GRACE E. POTTER AND FREDERICK K. SPARROW PART III: GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY ANN ARBOR: THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS PART IV: GENERAL SECTION LONDON: GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ANTHROPOLOGY, ECONOMICS 1953 ANGUAGE AND ITERATURE L L COPYRIGHT, 1953, POLITICAL SCIENCE BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PSYCHOLOGY he annual volumes of Papers of the Michigan Volume XXXVII (1951 meeting) was published on August 21, 1952. Academy of Science, Arts and Letters are issued T PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA under the joint direction of the Council of the Academy WAVERLY PRESS · BALTIMORE · MD. and of the University of Michigan Press. The editor for the Academy is Frederick K. Sparrow; for the University, Grace E. Potter. OFFICERS FOR 1952 Before the inauguration of the present series in 1922 the PRESIDENT, Floyd A. Stilgenbauer, Wayne University Academy published twenty-two volumes under the title VICE-PRESIDENT, Charles N. Staubach, University of Michigan Annual Report of the Michigan Academy of Science. SECRETARY, Norman E. Kemp, University of Michigan Copies are still available for distribution and will be sent TREASURER, Earl C. O’Roke, University of Michigan on exchange as long as the editions last. Applications EDITOR, Frederick K. Sparrow, Jr., University of Michigan for copies should be made to the University of Michigan LIBRARIAN, Warner G. Rice, University of Michigan Press. COÖRDINATOR FOR JUNIOR ACADEMY, Charles N. McCarty, Michigan State College The Annual Reports which are now being published SECTION CHAIRMEN contain the proceedings of the Academy. Applications for copies should be addressed to the Librarian of the ANTHROPOLOGY, A. C. Spaulding, University of Michigan University of Michigan. BOTANY, W. B. Drew, Michigan State College ECONOMICS, B. F. Landuyt, University of Detroit Volumes XXIV-XXXVIII are also issued in parts, in paper FINE ARTS, Lillian M. Pear, Grosse Pointe Park covers. The contents and the prices of these parts and FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, W. W. Chase, University the prices of all volumes in the series are listed at the of Michigan end of this volume. Orders for volumes and requests for FOLKLORE, B. P. Millar, Michigan State College detailed book lists of other University of Michigan FORESTRY, L. E. Bell, Michigan State College publications should be sent to the University of Michigan GEOGRAPHY, R. J. Goodman, Wayne University GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, E. W. Heinrich, University of Press. Michigan HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, H. W. Howe, Alma College HORTICULTURE, Ruth Mosher Place, Ann Arbor LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, W. H. Pries, Parks Department, Grand Rapids LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, H. A. Basilius, Wayne University MATHEMATICS, N. H. Anning, University of Michigan PHILOSOPHY, C. L. Stevenson, University of Michigan PSYCHOLOGY, T. G. Hegge, Wayne County Training School, Northville SANITARY AND MEDICAL SCIENCE, F. E. Shideman, University of Michigan SOCIOLOGY, D. C. Marsh, Wayne University ZOOLOGY, J. S. Rogers, University of Michigan Selections from Papers of the MASAL--Vol. 38 – Page 1 of 40 CONTENTS SILICIFIED PLANT REMAINS FROM PART I: BOTANY AND FORESTRY THE MESOZOIC AND TERTIARY OF BOTANY WESTERN NORTH AMERICA II. SOME FOSSIL WOODS FROM SILICIFIED PLANT REMAINS FROM THE MESOZOIC AND TERTIARY OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA. II. SOME FOSSIL NORTHERN ALASKA* WOODS FROM NORTHERN ALASKA. (4 pls). Chester A. CHESTER A. ARNOLD Arnold................................................................................ 2 HE woods described in this account were collected PART III: GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY Talong the Colville River in northern Alaska during the GEOGRAPHY summer of 1951, while I was exploring for fossil plants in Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 in connection with a CLASSIFICATION OF MICHIGAN LANDS ACCORDING TO USE project sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and CAPABILITY. (1 text fig.) Lindo J. Bartelli and Clarence A. the Arctic Research Laboratory at Point Barrow. Engberg............................................................................. 9 The material identified as Xenoxylon latiporosum THE TREND OF RURAL AND URBAN POPULATION IN (Cramer) Gothan was found at the “Big Bend” of the MICHIGAN FROM 1940 TO 1950. (5 text figs.) Donald Colville River, about three air-line miles south of the Eugene Bruyere .............................................................. 12 mouth of the Awuna River. It came from the Chandler LAND POLICY OF THE MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF formation of the Nanushuk group (Gryc et al., 6), which, CONSERVATION IN COÖPERATION WITH THE COUNTY LAND- on the basis of plants as well as of invertebrate fossils, USE PLANNING COMMITTEES. William H. Colburn and belongs to the Lower Cretaceous. The specimen Charles E. Millar.............................................................. 15 described as Cedrus alaskensis, sp. nov., was found about thirty-seven miles east of this spot, where the GEOLOGY Oolamnagavik River joins the Colville. Although the GLACIAL GRAND RIVER, MICHIGAN. (4 text figs.) J. Harlen rocks in this general region belong to the Nanushuk Bretz ................................................................................ 19 group, the strata at the place where the wood was found are much folded and faulted, so the exact position in the A NEW SPECIES OF THE TETRACORAL GENUS PALASTRAEA stratigraphic column cannot be given. However, the FROM THE MISSISSIPPIAN OF KENTUCKY. (1 pl.) George M. presence there of a three-foot seam of coal and of a few Ehlers and Erwin C. Stumm ............................................ 28 associated plant fragments indicates the Nanushuk THE SAW ROCK CANYON FAUNA AND ITS STRATIGRAPHIC group. Both specimens are therefore regarded as Lower SIGNIFICANCE. (5 text figs.) Claude W. Hibbard............. 30 Cretaceous. Both woods are silicified. Cedrus alaskensis is a member of the Pinaceae, and Xenoxylon latiporosum belongs to that complex of Mesozoic gymnosperms commonly referred to as the “transition conifers.” This term is derived from the fact that the members show characters in common with more than one family or genus of Recent Coniferales. X. latiporosum has been regarded by various authors (Holden, 8) as being araucarian, but it has some features of modern members of the Pinaceae and is at the same time quite distinctive in itself in a number of respects. Some species of Xenoxylon are said to be indistinguishable from Sciadopitys and Podocarpus. There are numerous instances on record of fossil woods in the Mesozoic and Tertiary of the Arctic regions, but very few have hitherto been found in Alaska, and none, so far as is known, on the Arctic Slope. Xenoxylon latiporosum (Cramer) Gothan (Pl. I, Fig. 2; Pl. II) The specimen is a small piece of what was evidently a trunk of considerable size. Although silicification had been thorough, much of the original organic matter remains in partly altered form. The shape and distribution of the pits on the tracheid walls are well preserved, but some of the chemical constituents of the Selections from Papers of the MASAL--Vol. 38 – Page 2 of 40 walls seem to have been removed, with the result that vertical diameters of the terminal pits in a group tend to conspicuous diagonal striations have been formed. The be more nearly equal than those of the pits in the pattern is strongly suggestive of fungous erosion (Pl. II, interior. No special arrangement of the pit groups (group Fig. 1). In transverse section the tracheid walls have a patterns) can be made out. At some places, where the somewhat frayed appearance. The thin walls of the ray oblique striations coincide with the pit openings, the cells have also suffered considerably, and tangential aperture looks deceptively oblique (Pl. II, Fig. 1). sections show little of the ray structure. The rays can be An important feature that has apparently been studied quite satisfactorily, however, in radial section. overlooked in Xenoxylon latiporosum is the presence of The name Xenoxylon was proposed by Gothan (4, p. 38) narrow but distinct crassulae (bars of Sanio) between for Pinites latiporosus described by Cramer (3, p. 176) the bordered pits in the tracheid walls (Pl. II, Fig. 1). from the Upper Jurassic of Green Harbor, Spitzbergen. Because of the crowded condition of the pits, the The distinguishing characteristics of the genus are: (1) crassulae are narrow, but in the best-preserved large, contiguous, vertically flattened bordered pits on tracheids they show distinctly as fine black lines about the radial walls of the tracheids, (2) very large pits in the 1.5 microns wide. These structures have some bearing cross fields, and (3) absence of pits on the horizontal upon the relationships of Xenoxylon, because they are and end walls of the ray cells. It was on the basis of the generally regarded as abietinean rather than araucarian last of these characters that Xenoxylon was regarded as characters. a member of the araucarian alliance. Opposed to this The thin transverse septations in the tracheids that have interpretation, however, are the large pits in the side been figured by Gothan (5), Ogura (12), and others, are walls, which are quite unknown among araucarians. The numerous in our material (PI. II, Fig. 3). They are genus is thus a typical “transition conifer.” It was a present in all the tracheids, and are spaced with