4 MEMOIRS OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN 
of these discoveries also may be found recorded, as follows 19 “A bed 
of fossil leaves, similar to those found at Kreischerville, has recently 
been discovered at the bottom of a clay pit at Green Ridge, but the 
specimens were too fragmentary for determination. The discovery 
was made by Mr. Heinrich Ries, while engaged in examining the 
clays of the Island for the New York Geological Survey. . . . Mr. 
Davis presented a finely preserved specimen of a conifer, from one of 
the Kreischerville clay pits, identified provisionally as a Juniperus.” 
It was about this time that what is known as the Androvette pit 
was opened up, which has since yielded the bulk of the material upon 
which our work is based. The first specimens found in this pit were 
collected by Mr. Wm. T. Davis," but it was not until some years 
afterward that the richest part of the plant-bearing layers were 
uncovered. During the autumn of 1904 specimens of amber, leaves 
and other remains were found in abundance and a systematic study 
of the deposits was begun by the senior author. Preliminary reports 
were made to the Natural Science Association of Staten Island,” 
and a brief note was published, with illustrations, in the Journal of 
the New York Botanical Garden for March, 1905. Particular 
attention was given to the amber and this feature of the deposits 
was made the basis of a paper which was read at the Philadelphia 
meeting of the Botanical Society of America, in 1904, under the 
title “ The Occurrence and Origin of Amber in the Eastern United 
States. 13 It was this paper which led to communication between 
the authors and to the joint work subsequently undertaken, the first 
result of which was a preliminary paper, entitled “ Affinities of Cer- 
tain Cretaceous Plant Remains Commonly Referred to the Genera 
Dammara and Brachyphyllum,”** designed to indicate the value of 
critical examination of the Kreischerville lignitic material. The 
investigations there outlined have since been systematically prose- 
cuted, both in the field and in the laboratory, and the results thus far 
attained, in so far as the coniferous remains are concerned, are set 
forth in this Memoir. Other contributions, also based either wholly 
or in part on the Kreischerville material, are as follows: 
” Proc, Nat. Sci. Assoc. Staten Island 3: 20. 1892. 
“Proc. Nat. Sci. Assoc. Staten Island 3: 23. 1892. 
"Proc. Nat. Sci. Assoc. Staten Island 9: 31. 1904.—Ibid. 35. 1906. 
* Amer. Nat. 39: 137-145. pls. 1-3. 1905. 
* Amer. Nat. 40: 189-215. pls. 1-5. 1906. 
