162 TEANSACTIONS OF THE [MaR. 2T 



theme was felt, for iu describing so simple a thing as a fossil 

 leaf, or shell, or fish-scale, he was reverent, as one dealing with 

 the record of the earth's organic history . He made a scientific 

 use of the imagination, and having in his mind, he reproduced 

 to his audience, a picture of the geological conditions or phe- 

 nomena he was describing. 



In Paleontology — Dr. Newberry's most elaborate work, and 

 on which his fame will more firmly rest, is that in paleontology. 

 The study of coal-plants was one of his earliest pastimes, and 

 during his medical course iu Paris he improved his opportuni- 

 ties for enlarging his acquaintance with the science. If he had 

 made a specialty of vegetable paleontology he could have become 

 the foremost authority of his time. Forty-three titles of his 

 papei'S belong to paleobotany, five of them dated as early as 

 1858. In 1884 he was made a paleontologist of the United 

 States Geological Survey, and published, in 1888, Monograph 

 XIV, on the "Fossil Fishes and Fossil Plants of the Triassic 

 Rocks of New Jersey and the Connecticut Valley." Two 

 unpublished monographs, " The Flora of the Amboy Clays '" and 

 " The Later Extinct Flora of North America," will appear as 

 posthumous works under the editorship of his pupil and 

 friend, Arthur Hollick. 



Following is a critical estimate of Dr. Newberry's work in 

 paleobotany by a present worker in that field : 



'' Dr. Newberry was a great geologist, without which qualifi- 

 cation no one can appreciate the full significance of fossil plants. 

 He never spoke of them without evincing a lively consciousness 

 that they were once real and living plants, and that they 

 belonged to the great record which time has made of the events 

 which have transpired iu the history of the earth. It was this 

 constant realization of the objective truth which geology unfolds, 

 a state of mind apparently wanting in the majority of geologists 

 and paleontologists, that gave Dr. Newberr^-'s utterances their 

 chief weight, as well as their peculiar charm. 



' ' Dr. Newberry was not a good botanist. He had once been, 

 but had neglected to keep pace with the science. Moreover, 

 he seemed to have very little interest in the more important 

 principles of botau}-. He was utterly indifferent to questions 

 of classification, and to judge from his published papers one 

 order of arrangement was as good for him as another. This 

 was not from lack of knowledge, excejDt so far as indifference 

 checked the effort to know, and he was not wholly indifferent to 

 the order of development of plant life, as his article on Fossil 

 Botany in Johnson's Cj'clopedia shows, although at the time 

 that was written the true order had not yet been established as 



