I>. WhiU — Cretaceous PkmUfrom Martha** Vineyard. 97 



Cliffs on the south shore of the same town, and various points 

 in the promontory of Gay Bead, Fossil wood, more or less 

 lignitized, is found wherever the series is met with. This 

 promontory, about one hundred and forty feet in height, and 

 five eighths of a mile in length, is the typical section of the 

 Vineyard Series. Here remains of dicotyledons were found in 

 the lignitic clays and sands of the south face, the gray ami 

 reddish clays and the limonite and the lignites on the west, and 

 the carbonaceous clays on the northwest face of the dill's. 



The greater part and the best of the specimens were ob- 

 tained (1) from argillaceous concretions in the lignites and car- 

 bonaceous days, (2) from the clay and clay-ironstone concretion- 

 in the reddish and gray clays, and (3) rarely from the concre- 

 tions and the limonite matrix of the ferruginous conglomerates 

 on the western escarpment. Some tine specimens were pro- 

 cured from concretions in an arenaceous lignitic clay at Nasha- 

 quitsa. Those plants found in the soft clay matrix on the 

 northwest and south shores of Gay Head, at Peaked I J ill, and 

 at Nashaquitsa, though in rare instances determinable, soon 

 became worthless upon exposure to the air. 



The plant collection embraces Cryptogams, Conifers, Mono- 

 cotyledons and Dicotyledons. Numerous fruits were obtained. 

 The aspect of the flora, as a whole, seems pre-Tertiaiw. Many 

 of the dicotyledons appear to represent archaic types, and the 

 greater part are unlike any that have yet been described. 



It is my purpose in this preliminary paper to select from 

 those specimens thus far identified a few which are the most 

 characteristic, and which have probably been described from 

 other localities or formations. They are as follows : 



Sjihenopteris grevillioides Hr. Liriodendron simplex Newb. 

 Sequoia ambigua Hr. (JL. Meekii Hr., in part.) 



Andromeda Parlatorii Hr. Eucalyptus Geinitzi Hr. 



Myrsine borealis Hr. Sapindus cf. Morrisoni Lx. 



Of these species, Sphenopteris grevillioides Hr. was found 

 in the Koine beds (Lower Cretaceous) of Greenland. The 

 specimen figured, PI. II, tig. 1, agrees well with Heer's de- 

 scription, while other fragments in the collection, probably 

 from lower pinnae, show the entire margins figured by Heer. 



Sequoia ambigua Hr., PI. II, fig. 2, 3, has been found in 

 the Kome beds, and in the lower Atane beds (Middle Creta- 

 ceous) of Greenland. 



Andromeda Parlatorii Hr., PL II, fig. 4, has been reported 

 from the Dakota group (Middle Cretaceous) of Kansas and 

 Nebraska; from the Lower Atane beds of Greenland; and 

 from strata of unsettled age, but probably Cretaceous, from 

 Las Animas, Colorado, and the Bozeman mines of Montana. 

 Though the specimen figured i> only the lower half of the leaf, 



