(so) 



tion is due in a large measure to the character of the ma- 

 terials, as vegetable remains are abundant in the form of lig- 

 nite, forming thin seams intercalated in the sands nearly to 

 the top of the exposure. The various layers are not con- 

 tinuous for any distance along the bluff and evidently indi- 

 cate an inshore shallow fresh-water deposit which as time 

 progressed gradually became marine through encroachments 

 of the sea ; the upper layers of sand with thin seams of com- 

 minuted vegetable matter indicating changed conditions and 

 deposits in less quiet waters. 



It is quite evident that sufficient material has not yet been 

 accumulated to warrant an exhaustive discussion of the flora. 

 I am enabled to enumerate sixty-seven different species of 

 plants of which fourteen are new ; of these sixty-seven species 

 some nineteen are of doubtful affinities, such as the various 

 species of Carfolithus, Arisacma, Podozann'tcs, Phragmiies, 

 and the various fragments provisionally determined. There 

 are present, however, in great abundance, such characteristic 

 mid-Cretaceous forms as Dammara, Cnnninghamites ^ Detval- 

 guca, Aloriconia^ Salixjlextiosa, Protcoides dafhnogeneoides. 

 Sassafras acutt'lobum, Laurus j^ltctom'a, Sapindus Morrisoni^ 

 Andromeda Parlatorii^ etc. 



The flora has more in common with the middle (Wood- 

 bridge) stage of the Raritan than with the other layers of 

 that formation, eleven of the seventeen identical species oc- 

 curring there, but this is undoubtedly due to the fact that this 

 horizon is the best known ; the upper Raritan (South Amboy) 

 layers have not been sufficiently exploited to give us a clear 

 idea of the vegetation prevalent when they were deposited. 

 Forty-nine of the Matawan species have not as yet been 

 found in the Raritan, although two of these are found on 

 Long or Staten Island in beds probably of Raritan age. 

 "While this comparison might argue a considerable interval 

 between the two formations, it remains to be pointed out that 

 the following ten species are confined to the Raritan of New 

 Jersey or the Islands and the Matawan formations on this 

 continent : Chondrites Jlexnosus^ GeinitziaJo7-mosa, Cunning- 



