K W. Berry— A Petrified Palm. 193 



more definitely to the limestone formation immediately over- 

 lying the ore. Thwaites and others have referred to the 

 deposit as the " Clinton ore," but inasmuch as it has been 

 shown that this formation is much older than the Clinton of 

 New York, this name is no longer appropriate. Since the 

 iron formation is well developed and best exposed in the vicin- 

 ity of Neda (the present name for the old station of Nye), near 

 which place the ore has been worked most extensively, the 

 name " Neda Iron Ore " is proposed for this formation. 



University of Illinois, Urbana, 111. 



Aet. IX. — A Petrified Palm from the Cretaceous of New 

 Jersey ; by Edwaed W. Beeey. 



Some years ago I described* the remains of a fan palm from 

 the Upper Cretaceous (Magothy formation) of New Jersey and 

 Maryland. The material consisted of fragmentary rays imbed- 

 ded in the sandy clays and were, in their manner of occurrence, 

 exactly comparable to similar materials found in littoral and 

 alluvial deposits now forming in the estuaries and lagoons bor- 

 dered by palmetto thickets along the Florida coast. They are 

 also comparable to the similar sandy clays containing masses of 

 Sabalites found in the last shallow water phase of the Apalachi- 

 cola group from Florida westward to Mississippi. 



The Upper Cretaceous foliage material was poorly character- 

 ized and not very convincing to botanists unfamiliar with the 

 evidence relied upon in determining the botanical affinities of 

 remains of this kind. Subsequently I collected the petrified 

 remains of palm wood from the outcrop of the Magothy forma- 

 tion at Cliff wood Bluff on Raritan Bay, N. J., a locality within 

 a mile of the pits of the Cliffwood Brick Company, where the 

 palm rays are very abundantly preserved. 



While it is impossible to affirm that the petrified wood and 

 the leaves represent the same species this is not at all improb- 

 able, and whether this be true or not the presence of undoubted 

 palm wood in these deposits tends to confirm the identification 

 of palm leaves at this horizon. 



Remains of palms are now well known from scattered locali- 

 ties of Upper Cretaceous age in both America and Europe, and 

 fossil fruits referred with considerable probability to the palms 



* Berry, E. W., Torreya, vol. v, p. 32, figs. 1, 2, 1905. 



