22 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JANUARY 
was obtained. Various writers have recorded the abundance of 
cones of Sequoia gracillima in the clays of the coastal bluffs of 
Cliffwood, New Jersey. Through the kindness of Dr. HoLtick 
and particularly of Mr. E. W. Berry of the Geological Department 
of Johns Hopkins University, the present writer has received from 
time to time numerous specimens of this species.. Unfortunately 
all of these were either too thoroughly impregnated with iron 
pyrites or in too bad a condition of preservation to yield any satis- 
factory evidence when examined microscopically. After repeated 
personal visits to the Cliffwood bluffs, the writer was at last 
rewarded in the spring of 1909 by the discovery of a single cone 
in which the axis was in a good condition of preservation. The 
figures in the present article, with the exception of the first, are 
made from the preparations of this cone. 
Fig. 1 shows the surface of a pyritized cone of Sequoia gracillima, _ 
so-called, from the two opposite flattened surfaces. In a is shown 
the best preserved surface of the cone, while in 6 the hexagonal 
outlines of the cone scales, and often their surface as well, are ob- 
scured by incrustations of the iron pyrites, which infiltrate the 
substance of the cone itself. In cones showing a better condition 
of preservation than is generally found in the Cliffwood material, 
the center of the peltate scales is marked by a profound depression. 
Fig. 2 reproduces a transverse section of the peduncle of the 
well preserved specimen described above. Higher up, the axis 
of the cone is not so well preserved, being somewhat flattened and 
considerably more impregnated with granules of iron pyrites. 
The peduncular portion, however, is in an admirable condition of 
preservation, even the soft tissues of the phloem and the cortex 
being clearly recognizable. The pith, which appears in the center 
of the figure, is characterized by the presence of the same sclerotic 
nests, composed of stone cells, described in the memoir of Dr. 
Hottick and the present writer, cited above, for the vegetative 
twigs of a number of conifers which are now known to be of arauca- 
rian affinities on the basis of their microscopic structure. Outside 
3 NEWBERRY, J. S., Flora of the Amboy Seger “ 9. figs. 1-3. 1896; BERRY, 
E. W., Flora of the SMutawan Formation. Bull. N.Y. Bot. Gard. 3:no0. 9. 1903 
Berry, E. W., Additions to the flora of the Matawan Formation. Bull. Torr. Bot. 
Club 31:Feb. 1904. 
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