134 Palaeontologie 



tan and Cliffwood formations of the Cretaceous, extending through 

 the Atlantic Coastal Piain region from Massachusetts through 

 Rhode Island to New York, inclusive of Marthas Vineyard, 

 Block-, Long- and Staten Islands. An interesting historical account 

 of previous work in this region is given, bringing the whole up to 

 the date of the present studies. 



A large number of localities are dealt with, though the character 

 of the deposits varies but little, being chiefly morainal or in a few 

 cases, clays in place. Special interest centers in the deposits at 

 Kreischerville, Staten Island, not only because of the extent 

 and variety of the fossil remains to be met with there, but also 

 because of associated phenomena. The beds at this place appear to 

 have been redeposited, since the plant remains occur in lenses or 

 pockets, and the accompanying sandy layers are conspicuously cross- 

 bedded. In association with numerous relics of gymnospermous 

 trees, there is an abundance of amber, and there are also numerous 

 fragments of charred wood which afford evidence of a former 

 forest fire. 



On Block Island, the fossils are found only as morainal mate- 

 rial, in ferruginous shale or sandstone, but mostly in close association 

 with transported or eroded masses of plastic and lignitic clay. At 

 Gay Head on Marthas Vineyard, the plants occur in gray sandj^ 

 clays, and in ferruginous nodules or concretions, either in place or 

 scattered in the talus accumulations of the escarpment. 



A general survey of the entire fiora shows a very insignificant 

 representation of the Pteridophyta , amounting in all to six species 

 out of a total of 222, a much smaller proportion that that of the 

 Amboy clays. Of the seed plants, there are 14 genera and 27 species 

 of Gyrnnosperms including two species belonging to the Cycadales; 

 four species and four genera of Monocotyledons with the chief 

 representation in the ChoripetaJae. The MagnoUaceae are especially 

 prominent, being represented by 3 genera and 22 species, among 

 which Magnolia is far in the lead with 14 species. 



There is a very unusual representation of specimens of uncertain 

 afifinities amounting to 23 species in all, including such types as 

 Liriodeiidropsis and WiUiamsonia. It is nevertheless of interest to 

 note that out of the whole insular flora of 222 species, 31 are described 

 for the first time, while 25 others have not yet been found elsewhere 

 in America. Three new species, Guatteria cretacea, Ocotea nassaii- 

 ensis and Gyininda primordialis add as many new genera to the 

 Cretaceous flora of North America. 



Comparison with the Cretaceous flora of Greenland discloses 

 the fact that the nearest affinities are with the Atane beds (40 

 species), next with the Patoot beds (23 species), and least of all 

 with the Kome beds (9 species); and with the Atane and Patoot 

 beds there seems to be a much closer afifinity than Avith the Dakota 

 group of the United States. This relationship is indicated not so 

 much by the actual number of species common to all, as by the 

 relative abundance of certain species which may be regarded as 

 characteristic. 



From the further evidence brought forward by White and 

 Schuchert, the conclusion is reached that the insular flora and its 

 equivalents on the mainland, is, in part at least, of Senonian age, 

 with possibly the oldest portion as old as late Cenomanian. 



D. P. Penhallow. 



