74 



Williams 



course of the Bronx river southward. The persons present were 

 Misses Dubois and Adam, and Messrs. Leggett, Britton, Wilber, 

 Schoeny, Gross and Gerard. Here new stations were discovered for 

 the following plants : Staphylea trifolia, L., Allium tricoccum, Ait., 

 and Galium Mollugo, L., along R. R., south of depot ; Arisaema, Dra- 

 contium, Schott, in a swamp near the Bronx river ; and Isoetes riparia, 

 Engelm., on the river shore about opposite Fordham station. 



On May 29th, five members of the Club— Messrs. Rudkin, 

 Bower, Britton, Schrenk and Schoeny — visited the pine barrens, and ' 

 explored the region lying between New Egypt and Manchester,' and 

 afterwards proceeded to Tom's River. At New Egypt, Viola tricolor, 

 L. yar. arvensis, DC., was found in some abundance, and seemingly a 

 native. Anlhemis arvensis, L. was observed to be rapidly spreading 

 and becoming very common in the " Pines." 



On June 5th, the field meeting was held at New Dorp, S. I., 

 Messrs. Rudkm, Bower, Britton and Gerard being present. No new 

 plants nor no new stations were discovered on this excursion. 



4 



57. The Geological History of the North American Flora, 



by J. S. Newberry. 

 \_Absiract of a lecture delivered before the Torrey Botanical Club 1 

 America is called the New World, but, so far as we now know that 

 portion of North America which lies immediately north of the St 

 Lawrence and the Great Lakes, with its southern extension, the Adi- 

 rondack region, is the oldest portion of the earth's surface This land 

 area, sometimes wider, sometimes narrower, and gradually increasing, 

 has continued to exist throughout all recorded geological time • hence ■ 

 It is not surprising that we have here the most complete and connected 

 history of plant life. A brief synopsis of this history I shall attempt 

 to give you this evening. * 



.1. ^I'^^iTy^'' ^^^ Cambrian and Silurian ages, and the beginning of 

 the legible life-record of the globe, a broad continental area occupied 

 what IS now the eastern half of North America. Whether this land 

 bore any terrestrial vegetation we do not yet know. The Archaean 

 rocks which compose it contain quantities of carbonaceous matter 

 now graphite undoubtedly derived from plant tissue; but whether the 

 tissue of land plants or seaweeds we have no means of knowing in 

 consequence of the complete metamorphism of the strata 



In the Lower Silurian age this old continent sank,'and the sea 

 flowed m over a large part of its surface. The beach formed by this 

 invading sea we now call the Potsdam sandstone. Later deposits 

 which are like his the direct wash of the land, frequently contain he 

 impressions of land plants in abundance. In ihe Potsdam sandstone 

 we have found, none, and therefore we may infer that, if^not ab ent 



Lnd^h:TJe'Io^hePnt'? ^T' Plants however were abundant,' 

 and the layers of the Potsdam sandstone are in a thousand olaces c^w 



tS L , 'n\v.egetabje tissue has all disappeared 



_ The hmeslones of this age-the organic sedimei s spread bv the 



S.lurtan ocean over all the area i, subn,erged-contain' also abUd! 



