62 BrERRY: MESOZOIC -FLORA OF ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN 
The conditions may be pictured as a series of coastal lagoons 
stretching along the shore of the Ripley Sea from which they were 
partially or wholly cut off by barrier beaches. Those less sheltered 
were filled with the argillaceous sands such as occur west of 
Camden, Tennessee, and farther south, where most of the plant 
fragments were broken up, and the more or less carbonaceous 
clays contain identifiable fragments of only the more resistant 
types. The lagoons represented by the Perry and: Cooper lo- 
calities were more sheltered and protected from wave action, at 
least for long intervals, during which the fine muds were deposited. 
That there were no considerable streams emptying into the 
Ripley Sea in the Tennessee region is rendered very probable by 
the history of the Tennessee River lying to the eastward. The 
Tennessee appears to have been the master stream at that time, 
following much the same course that it does at the present time 
but farther to the eastward, its distributaries having migrated 
northward during Tuscaloosa time, as. I have indicated in the 
discussion of Tuscaloosa history in 1919 (op. cit.). The Ripley 
mainland appears to have been well wooded. There is no evidence 
of distinctively palustrine conditions at the two principal plant 
localities, although elsewhere at this time such evidence is present. 
There are, however, several supposed aquatic plants present in 
the collection, and the number of coastal types is considerable. 
The Ripley flora as at present known comprises 135 species, 
including the doubtfully organic remains named Halymenites. 
Most of these species are represented by well preserved and 
ample material and are hence well characterized. Undoubtedly 
more’ extensive collecting would greatly increase the number of 
species and this is also to be expected should similar highly fossili- 
ferous clay lenses be uncovered in the future. Eighty-six of the 
135 species, or more than 60 per cent, are new toscience and these 
include the following genera hitherto unknown in deposits older 
than the Eocene: Dioscorites, Celtis, Capparis, Cedrela, Dillenites 
and Chrysophyllum. 
The total number of genera is seventy-one and these are 
segregated into forty families representing twenty-eight orders. 
The supposed alga, Halymenites, and the form referred to the 
genus Selaginella are of aonketal _poteete affinity. There are 
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