210 



SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1921. 



Newberry described the flora of the "Amboy 

 days'' (Raritan formation) ' he renamed Les- 

 cjuereux's species Sequoia gracillima because he 

 found associated with similar foliar remains in 

 New Jersey elongate cones with scales resem- 

 bling those of a Sequoia. He commented on the 

 resemblance of these cones to Geinitzia, but 

 the matter rested here until I compared speci- 

 mens of the so-called Seqnoia gracillima cones 

 with those of the European Geinitzia formosa 

 Heer and found the two to be identical. In 

 the European Upper Cretaceous these cones 

 were foimd attached to foliage of a very differ- 

 ent type from Glyptostrobus gracillimus or 

 Sequoia gracillima, although in America the 

 cones were always detached. Foliage like that 

 of Geinitzia formosa was found, however, asso- 

 ciated with them. It seemed obvious that the 

 cones referred to Sequoia gracillima were those of 

 Geinitzia formosa , and accordingly I so assigned 

 them. I had collected hundreds of these cones 

 and had abundant comparative material. 

 When I revised the Raritan flora I had much 

 larger collections than those of Newberry, and I 

 found that the foliage which he had called 

 Sequoia ijracHlima was identical with what he 

 had identified as Widdringtonites reichii (Et- 

 tingshausen) Heer. 



These remains are abundant in the Atlantic 

 Coastal Plain as far south as Alabama and 

 have never been found with ovulate cones, 

 although the staminate cones are not uncom- 

 mon. Thus the slender conifer in the East is 

 Widdringtonites. Whether Lesquereux's Glyp- 

 tostrohus gracillimus also represents this genus 

 or not I do not know. I suspect that in spite 

 of minor and not very obvious differences 

 Glyptostrohus gracillimus is none other than 

 Sequoia condifa, which Lesquereux described 

 in Hayden's report for 1874 from very incom- 

 plete material collected at Fort Harker and 

 Clay Center, Kans. 



The most abundant plants in the Cheyenne 

 sandstone are graceful, delicate coniferous 

 branches bearing numerous distinctive cones 

 identical with the one referred to Sequoia 

 condita by Lesquereux, as is the foliage, which 

 has been recorded in the literature of the 

 Cheyenne sandstone, as Glyptostrobus gracilli- 

 mus (Ward) and Sequoia gracillima (Knowl- 

 ton). The collections naturally contain many 

 specimens of detached cones and many speci- 

 mens of foliage lacking cones, but the evidence 



is as strong as it can possibly be that when 

 cones and foliage are found in union in a dozen 

 specimens those that are found separated in 

 the same bed are none other. I have specimens 

 of cones from six localities and of the foliage 

 from thirteen localities around Belvidere. 



Moreover, the foliage shows considerable 

 variation in the extent to which the leaves are 

 pointed or obtuse, appressed or spreading, de- 

 pending not only on a natural amount of 

 variation but also on whether it represents 

 shoots of the year or older twigs, and further- 

 more the appearance differs greatly with the 

 nature of the matrix, the extent to which 

 iron salts have been deposited along the 

 channels formed by the twigs, and other con- 

 ditions. The specimens found in the sand- 

 stones appear different from those found in the 

 clays, and some specimens in the clays which 

 were much incrusted suggested at first sight 

 the genus Brachyphylhtm. 



Before describing the species as fully as the 

 large collection studied permits, I would like 

 to point out that Sequoia condita is not related 

 to Widdringtonites, Juniperus, Glyptostrobus, 

 or Sphenolepis — genera in which the foliage is 

 comparable — and it is perfectly distinct from 

 Sequoia fastigiata. It is known only from the 

 Cheyenne sandstone and from the true Dakota 

 of Kansas. In the absence of attached cones 

 the foliage might be referred to any one of 

 several genera, or its variants might be re- 

 ferred to several different species in as many 

 genera. Taken together, they demonstrate 

 that it is a Sequoia, and I do not feel the slight- 

 est doubt but that all the material from the 

 Cheyenne sandstone represents a single botanic 

 species. It may be described as follows: 

 TAvigs rather rigitl, pinnately branched, slender 

 elongate; covered with small, decurrent, 

 crowded leaves varying from appressed to 

 spreading falcate, thick and coriaceous, acute 

 or obtusely pointed, slightly keeled but with- 

 out vein. The leaves are arranged in a spiral 

 phyllotaxy which becomes higher with the 

 elongation of the twigs. In old twigs 2 to 3 

 millimeters in diameter they are scattered, 

 spreading, and falcate. Their blunt tip is 

 more apparent than real and is due to their 

 usual or partial preservation in the form of 

 casts. The variations in appearance are well 

 shown in the accompanying figures. The 

 cones vary from prolate to nearly spherical in 



