506 Berry: MESOZOIC FLORA OF THE COASTAL PLAIN 
the coriaceous nature of most of the leaves. The conifers, which 
are among the slowest plants to succumb to maceration, are the 
most abundant types, and the various andromedas, magnolias, 
and lanceolate leaves of Ficus are also very resistant. The con- 
clusion is obvious that all of the more delicate plant remains 
that floated into the Cretaceous sea were destroyed, and this is 
corroborated by the character of the sediments, which are pre- 
dominantly sandy and indicate deposition in shallow much agi- 
tated waters. Possibly the Cretaceous coast-line in this region 
was not broken by any re-entrants of any size, which usually offer 
exceptional opportunities for the formation of bars and lagoons 
and the resulting mud-flats, which furnish such excellent facilities 
for the preservation of the terrestrial vegetation supplied by the 
tributary rivers. We know that vegetable matter was abundant 
in these Cretaceous waters from the lignitic character of many 
of the sands and from the dark carbonaceous clays, but the bulk 
of it was evidently thoroughly triturated and comminuted before 
entombment. Possibly too, subsequent erosion of the landward 
margins of the sediments may account for the absence of land 
plants, since at McBride’s Ford near the landward margin of the 
deposits they are so much more abundant than at any of the 
other localities. 
These thirty-two Georgia Cretaceous species are distributed 
among seventeen families in fifteen orders. They include a single 
polypodiaceous fern and seven species of conifers, most of the latter 
apparently referable to the Araucarieae, although the relatively 
primitive Taxaceae are represented by a species of Tumion. There 
are two monocotyledons of little significance and twenty-two dicot- 
yledons of various affinities, including four figs, three willows, 
three andromedas, two magnolias, and two cinnamomums. 
Perhaps the most remarkable form collected is a new species 
of Euphorbiaceae, very similar to the modern tropical genera Ja- 
tropha and Manihot. These leaves are of immense size and are 
represented in the collections by the two nearly complete leaves, 
restorations of which are here figured, and by a number of frag- 
ments. This species, which is unlike anything previously known 
either in this country or abroad, may be briefly characterized as 
follows :— 
