Geology and Mineralogy. 43Y 



II. Geology and Mineralogy. 



1. Additions to the Paleobotany of the Crectaceous Forma- 

 tion on Staten Island ; by Arthur Hollick. Trans. N". Y. Acad. 

 Sci., vol. xii, pp. 1-12, pi. 1-iv. — Dr. Hollick adds seven new 

 species to the flora of the Lower Cretaceous of the United 

 States, and finds on Staten Island several of the unpublished ones 

 of the Amboy clays described by Dr. Newberry. There can be 

 no longer any question as to the parallelism of these two series 

 of beds. The beautiful Platanvs Aquehonyensis here figured 

 (pi. iv) may belong to Vitis or Grewiopsis. It is hardly a Plata- 

 mus. The name Myrica grandifolia which he gives to the fine 

 leaf figured on plate iii (fig. 1), is unfortunately preoccupied. It 

 may be renamed Myrica HollicJci, an honor richly deserved by 

 the discoverer. 



In his eflbrt to avoid making too many new species on insuf- 

 ficient material, so laudable in itself, Dr. Hollick has clearly gone 

 too far in this paper. Laurus primigenia is a wide-spread Ter- 

 tiary species and has never been found in the Cretaceous, except 

 perhaps in the Laramie group. It is unlike the present figures, 

 which are too fragmentary for safe determination. Almost the 

 same may be said of his Rhamnus Rossmdssleri, and Dr. Hollick 

 is mistaken in saying that it is described by Heer from the Cre- 

 taceous of Greenland. Both these leaves have a Cretaceous 

 aspect and differ essentially from the Tertiary species to which 

 they are referred. Again, his claim to have discovered Sequoia 

 Couttsiai'va. the Cretaceous is not sustained by his figure (pi. 1, 

 fig. 5). It is a Tertiary species, and the form here figured belongs 

 to the older type S. Reichenbachi. l. f. w. 



2. On the Organization of the Fossil Plants of the Coal- 

 Measures, part xix; by W. C. Williamson. Phil. Trans. Roy. 

 Soc. London, vol. clxxxiv, P>, 1893, pp. 1-38, pi. i-ix. — This is 

 one of the most important of this valuable series of memoirs. It 

 deals entirely with Lepidodendron Harcourtii of Witham, origin- 

 ally described in 1833, subsequently treated by Lindley and Hut- 

 ton and by Brongniart, and more recently by Bertrand and 

 Hovelacque. But this is the first time that Prof. Williamson has 

 approached the subject on account of the difficulty in finding the 

 original types and such other material as he deemed necessary to 

 throw any additional light upon it. Harcourt's original specimen 

 was at length discovered in the museum at York, and much 

 new material was supplied by the trusty collectors who have so 

 long assisted Prof. Williamson in his researches. Although un- 

 able to prove that this species ever developed a secondary xylem, 

 or exogenous zone, as he has shown so many Lepidodendroid 

 forms to do in their later stages, he was still in condition to add 

 much to what was already known of this historic plant. Perhaps 

 the most important part of this information is that which relates 

 to the Halonial and Ulodendroid attachments of this species. 

 The author had shown ten yeai's earlier from the study of other 



