Lyman.] ^ [Ja°- 5, 



proximus from the Rajraalial group of India (Jurassic) ; and in describing 

 the Clathropteris platyphylla from the Virginia coal measures (probably 

 corresponding in age to the Gwynedd and Plicenixville shales, and de- 

 cidedly later than the Newark beds) points out (p. 56) several ditier- 

 ences between it and the European Jurassic plant, with whicli, on the 

 whole, he thinks it should be associated. Newberry (Monograph xiv, p. 

 94) says that fragments of the Clathropteris platyphylla bave been ob* 

 tained, thougli only rarely, from the beds of Newark ; but the one he 

 figures is from Mil ford, N. J., that is, some nine thousand feet above the 

 Newark beds. 



Newberry mentions (p. 86) also an imperfect Newark fossil that, "in 

 reviewing the literature of the Triassic flora " (an expression that seems 

 to show his inclination to assume a priori that the Newark beds were 

 necessarily Mesozoic), he found to resemble the Eqnisetnm meriani ; but 

 he candidly adds : " Until the fructification of these Equisetoid plants 

 shall be found which will permit a better comparison with those of older 

 and later formations, it is a useless expenditure of time to discuss the 

 question whether they are species of Calamites which have survived from 

 the Carboniferous age, are true Equiseta, or are species of an extinct 

 genus of that family." 



Newberr}^ further speaks of a fossil tree trunk found frequently in the 

 sandstone quarries of Newark, resembling Lepiilodendron, adding in re- 

 gard to the idea of its being one : " This is a manifest error. Lepidodendron 

 did not pass from the Carboniferous to the Mesozoic age." Evidently he 

 took it in advance for granted that the beds of Newark could not be older 

 than Mesozoic. It is not unlikely these very fossils are of the species so 

 readily identified by Lesquereux with the Lepidodendron. Newberry 

 thinks they are probably a Palissya; and Fontaine mentions Palisi^ya 

 indica, a plant of the Rajmahal group, as occurring in North Carolina. 



Apparently no other fossils have been recorded as coming from 

 Newark ; and it is seen that only two of them have been identified with 

 any approach to certainty. Moreover, neither of the two would seem to 

 be so closely like the nearest European and Indian forms as altogether to 

 preclude the possibiUty of their being of very different age from them, 

 especially considering their geographical remoteness. 



Rogers, in liis Final Report on the Geology of Pennsylvania, 1858, Vol. 

 ii, p. 507, suggests the possibility of finding Permian fossils among the 

 highest rocks of Greene county, in the southwestern corner of the State ; 

 and Stevenson, in his Rtport of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsyl- 

 vania, 1876, shows (p. 35) that the highest known rocks there are red 

 shales. Whether Carboniferous or Permian, it is by no means inconceiv- 

 able that they may prove to be contemporaneous with the Newark beds. 



The Canadian geologists have found that much of the formerly so- 

 called Trias of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia 

 is really Permian, Pernio carboniferous, or even Carboniferous (see the 

 Canada Geological Survey Reports: Ells, 1882-84, 1885; Fletcher, 188C, 



