318 E. IT. Berry — Pleistocene Plants. 



Art. XX. — Pleistocene Plants from the Blue Ridge vn 

 Virginia ; by Edward W. Berry (with figs. 1-5). 



Several years ago I received from Mr. E. C. Harder, 

 formerly of the U. S. Geological Survey, three or four small 

 pieces of leaf-bearing laminated clay that he had collected in 

 1908 while making a study of the iron ores of the Appalachian 

 region in Virginia, the occurrence of which he mentioned in 

 print in 1909.* About the same time I received from Dr. 

 Thomas L. Watson, the State Geologist of Virginia, a second 

 small collection from the same locality made by Prof. R. J. 

 Holden of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute while engaged in 

 a study of the iron ores for the Virginia Geological Survey. 

 I am greatly indebted to all of these gentlemen for the 

 opportunity of studying these fossils and for information 

 regarding their occurrence. 



While the species represented are few in number they are 

 such a remarkable assemblage for such an inland and elevated 

 locality, that they seem Avorthy of the following brief note. 



The locality is on the western flank of the Blue Ridge near 

 the town of Buena Vista in Rockbridge County, Virginia. f 



The stratum containing the leaves outcrops somewhat north 

 of the junction of Big and Little Chalk Mine runs in the west- 

 ernmost open cut of the Buena Vista iron mine, which has 

 gone out of working and at present is being worked for clay 

 by the Dickenson Fire Brick Company. The leaf-bearing 

 layers constitute a lens of silty gray or brown, thinly laminated 

 clay of limited extent and with a maximum thickness of 20 to 

 30 feet and a dip of 20° to the east. This lens, according to 

 Prof. HoldeD, is underlain by the residual materials of the 

 much folded Cambrian shales (Buena Vista or Watauga shale) 

 and overlain by drift material from the adjacent mountains. 

 Immediately below the lens the material is a white clay and 

 according to Mr. Harder its upper portion contains quartzitic 

 bowlders (" river jacks "), decomposed chert fragments, local 

 pockets of lignite and thin layers and lenses of more sandy 

 materials. 



Combining the results of an examination of the two collec- 

 tions yields the following plants : 



Coniferales 

 Pinus sp. 



A single asymmetrical flat seed 2 - 5 mm wide and 3"75 mm long, 

 with traces of a once present wing ; very probably represents 

 some species of Pinus at present specifically undeterminable. 



* Harder, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., 380 E, p. 68, 1909. 

 \ Lexington sheet of U. S. Geol. Surv. 



