210 



SIIORTKU CONTRIBUTIOXS TO GENERAL, GEOLOGY, 1921. 



Newberry (lescribe<l tlic flora of the "Amhoy 

 clays" (Raritan formation) lie reiiainetl Les- 

 qiiereux's spt^cies iSfquoia (jraciUima because he 

 found associated with siniihir lobar remains m 

 New Jersey elongate cones with scalers resem- 

 bling those of a Sequoia. He coiiunented on the 

 resemblance of these cones to Geinitzia, but 

 the matter rested here until 1 compared speci- 

 mens of the so-called Sequoia (jracUlntia cones 

 with those of the European (ieiiiit.zia formona 

 Heer and found the two to be identical. In 

 the European Upper Cretaceous these cones 

 were found attached to foliage of a very differ- 

 ent type from GlyplostrohiiK ijracilJimus: nr 

 Sequoia (iracillima, although in America the 

 cones were always detached. Foliage like that 

 of Geiiiit:ia fonnom was found, however, asso- 

 ciated with them. It seemed obvious that the 

 cones referred to Sequoia ijraeillima were those of 

 Geinitzia for aiemi . and acconlingly I so assigned 

 them. I had collected hundreds of these cones 

 and had aliundant comparative material. 

 When 1 revised the Raritan flora I had much 

 larger collections than those of Newberry, and I 

 found that the foliage which hv had called 

 Sequoia Ijraeillima was identical with what he 

 had identifled as Widdriuijtonites reichii (lOt- 

 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 

 Widdriitiitoiiitts. Whether Lesquereu.x's Gh/p- 

 tostrohuK (jraciliimus also represents this genus 

 or not I i\o not know. I suspect that in spite 

 of minor and not very obvious differences 

 Gh/ptoftfrobus e/raeiUiinus is none other than 

 Sequoia condita, which Lesquereux described 

 in Hayden's report for 1874 from very incom- 

 plete material collected at Fort llarker and 

 Clay Center, Ivans. 



The most abmidant jilauts in the Cheyerme 

 sandstone are graceful, delicate coniferous 

 branches bearing numerous distinctive cones 

 i(h'ntical with the one n'ferred to Sequoia 

 coiidita by Lescjuereu-X, as is the foliage, which 

 has been recorded in the literature of the 

 (Cheyenne sandstone as Ghjptostreihus (jrneiUi- 

 nius (Ward) and Seejuoia (jraeilUma (Knowl- 

 ton). The collections naturally contain many 

 specimens of detached cones and many speci- 

 mens of foliatre lacking cones, but the evidence 



is as strong as it can possibly be that when 

 cones anil foliage are found in union in a dozen 

 specimens tliosc that are found separated in 

 the same bed are none other. I have specimens 

 of cones from si.x 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- 

 pemling 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 l)een deijosited along the 

 channels formed by the twigs, and other con- 

 ditions. The specimens found in the sand- 

 stones appear different from those foimd in the 

 clays, and some specimens in the clays which 

 were much incrusted suggested at first sight 

 the genus Braeh[/jdti/]lu)n. 



Before describing the sjiecies as fully as the 

 large collection studied permits, I woukl like 

 to ])oint out that Sequoia condita is not related 

 to WiddringtoriiteH, Juniperu», (iJypte)Mre>hu^, 

 or Spheiiolepis — genera in which the foliage is 

 comparable — and it is perfectly distinct from 

 Sequoia fastie/iata. It is kno\\ni 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 tlic slight- 

 est doubt but that all the material from the 

 Cheyenne sanilstone represents a single botanic 

 species. It may be described as follows: 

 Twigs rather rigitl, pinnatcly branched, slender 

 elongate; covered with small, tlecurrent, 

 crowded leaves varying from appressed to 

 sprea(Hng falcate, thick and coriaceous, acute 

 or obtusely pointeil, slightly keeled Init with- 

 out vein. The leaves are arranged in a s])iial 

 phyllotaxy which becomes higher with the 

 elongation of the twigs. In old twigs 2 to 3 

 millimeters in diameter they ate scattered, 

 spreading, aud falcate. Tiieir blunt tip is 

 more apparent than re.-d 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 fi-om jtrolate to nearly s])herical in 



