STUDIES OF CRETACEOUS CONIFEROUS RE- 
MAINS FROM KREISCHERVILLE, 
NEW YORK 
INTRODUCTION 
PREVIOUS REFERENCES TO THE PALEOBOTANY OF THE LOCALITY 
In the early reports of the New York State Geological Survey 
may be found several references to the geology of the vicinity of 
Kreischerville, but they are very brief, and the fossil plant remains 
in connection with the Cretaceous deposits receive only a few meager 
lines of description. 
Dr. Lewis С. Beck refers to the lignite, and says: “ On Staten 
Island, near Rossville, is a stratum of this mineral, from three to six 
inches in width, apparently below high-water mark. Sometimes it 
has the colour and appearance of wood; at others it is quite compact, 
and has a dark brown or black colour, and resembles jet . . . Prob- 
ably, also, amber will be found here, as it accompanies a similar 
formation at South Amboy, in New Jersey, a few miles from the 
above locality." Subsequently? he refers to the Rossville lignite as 
having “ the appearance of wood charred by the action of an acid,” 
and suggests that it probably owes its origin to the action of the 
excess of acid which the clay contains “upon drift wood from time 
to time deposited on this shore of the island." From these descrip- 
tions it may be inferred that the ideas of those days in regard to the 
nature, origin and antiquity of this lignite were exceedingly vague. 
*Investigations prosecuted with the aid of a grant from the Botanical Society of 
America. 
? First Ann. Rept. N. Y. State Geol. Surv. Assembly Document No. 161, Feb. тт, 
1837, р. 59. 
*'Third Ann. Rept. N. Y. State Geol. Surv. Assembly Document No. 275, Feb. 27, 
1839, p. 16. 
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