32 CRETACEOUS PALEONTOLOGY. 



been led to correlate them and the underlying sand strata down 

 to the top of the "Amboy Stoneware Clay" with the Magothy 

 formation of Maryland. The lower contact of this Magothy 

 formation as it is developed in New Jersey, is marked by a more 

 or less conspicuous line of unconformity. The contact with the 

 Merchantville clay, the formation next above, is sharp and easily 

 recognized although the two formations are perfectly conform- 

 able. Wherever seen the top of the Magothy is a loose sand, or 

 a sand with clay laminae, whereas the Merchantville is a glau- 

 conitic clay, black when fresh, rusty-brown when weathered, and 

 usually fossiliferous. This contact, moreover, is frequently em- 

 phasized by a bed of ironstone due to the cementation of the upper 

 layer of the Magothy sand. Somewhat extended studies of the 

 flora of the Cliffwood clays have been made by Berry 1 . In his 

 most recent paper on the flora he has recorded a total of 49 

 species which are confined to the Magothy, although one or two 

 are also known from Europe. In addition to this number there 

 are several others, described by Newberry as from the Raritan 

 of New Jersey, but which have not been detected in the com- 

 paratively abundant recent collections from the Raritan proper, 

 having been found only in certain lower Magothy beds near 

 Morgan, from which horizon they were probably obtained by 

 Newberry. Of the Magothy species which are known from 

 outside this formation, 36 occur in the Raritan of New Jersey, 

 but if certain species having a wide geographic distribution and 

 geologic range are removed from this number and some others 

 which are not satisfactorily identified by reason of the imper- 

 fection of their preservation, it is found that about 25 per cent, 

 of the flora is common to the Raritan of New Jersey. Thirty- 

 one species in the flora, including several not found in the New 

 Jersey Raritan, occur in the supposed Raritan beds of Staten 

 Island, Long Island and eastward, but it is quite possible that the 

 Magothy beds occur also on these islands, and that some of the 

 supposed Raritan species belong rather to the higher flora. Twelve 

 species in the flora are confined to the Magothy and Dakota 

 floras, while on the other hand there are only 5 species peculiar 



1 See foot note, p. 31. 



