BULLETIN 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



Vol. XIII.] New York, March, 1886. [No. 3. 



The Flora of the Amboy Clays. 



Bv J. S. Ne\v]]f:rry. 



(Abstract.) 



The Amboy clays of New Jersey represent the middle por- 

 tion of the Cretaceous system, and are equivalents of the Lower 

 Chalk of England. This has been known in a general way for 

 many years, since the clays contain angiosperm leaves, and this 

 botanical group, beginning in the earliest epoch of the Cretaceous 

 age, shows its first considerable development in the Middle Cre- 

 taceous; and the green-sands which overlie the clays are full of 

 the mollusks which are characteristic of the Upper Chalk. 



The Amboy clays are several hundred feet in thickness, and 

 contain a great number of leaf impressions, which are, to a large 

 extent, different in the difterent beds. Perhaps a hundred dis- 

 tinct species have been collected from them up to the present 

 time, and it is evident that they hold a very rich and interesting 

 flora. As the clays are of great economic importance, and are 

 likely to be worked at many places, perhaps for hundreds of 

 years, this flora will probably become better known than that of 

 any other geological formation except the Coal Measures. Un- 

 fortunately most of the leaf impressions hitherto obtained from 

 the clay pits have proved perishable — a thick sheet of carbon- 

 aceous matter occupying the place of the original leaf, and in 

 fresh specimens contrasting beautifully with the light colored clay, 

 but cracking, when dried, to a powder that may be blown off. with 

 the breath. For this reason the collections formerly made have 

 been lost, and the study of the flora has been delayed. Within 

 a few years past, however, beds have been found at South 

 Amboy and Woodbridge in which the leaves are represented by 

 a thin film of brown carbonaceous matter, or a coffee colored 

 stain, in which the nervation is distinctly discernible. From 



