196 



THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. XL 



At about this same time Dr. J. S. Newberry was engaged in the 

 investigation of the Cretaceous flora of New Jersey, the results of 

 which were later included in his "Flora of the Amboy Clays." ^ 

 In this work he lists Dammara borealis Heer as a characteristic 

 and abundant element of the flora, and says (pp. 46, 47): "In his 

 Flora Fossilis Arctica (loc. cit.) Professor Heer describes and fig- 

 ures the scales of a conifer which very much resemble those of 

 Dammara australis, and yet there are some reasons for doubting 

 the accuracy of his reference. It may also be said that the fruit 

 scales which he calls Eucalyptus Geinitzi. . . .are without doubt 

 generically the same. ... the fruits figured by Heer under the 

 name of Eucalyptus are plainly scales, and are parts of an imbri- 

 cated cone. I say this with confidence, because it has happened 

 that in the Amboy clays we have found numbers of them some- 

 times associated together, oftener scattered and showing both faces. 

 A peculiarity of these scales is that they are striped longitudinally 

 by clefts which are filled with an amber-like substance. This 

 structure is plainly seen in those figured by Professor Heer on PI. 

 XLV. Similar scales are described in an article by Mr. David 



White on the fossil plants from Gay Head 



"The considerations which have led me to doubt whether these 

 cone scales are those of Dammara are that we have found no 

 Dammara-like leaves associated with them, whereas in New 

 Jersey they occur in great numbers mingled with and sometimes 

 apparently attached to the branchlets of an extremely delicate 



conifer much like Heer's Juniperus macilenta Almost no 



other plant except this conifer is found with the cone scales, and 

 it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that they belong together. 

 Another reason for doubting whether these are the scales of a 

 Dammara is that in some of them traces of two seeds are appar- 

 ently visible, while in Dammara there is but one seed under each 



The discussion is further continued by Dr. Newberry under his 



= This obser\'ation by Dr. Newberry is particularly interesting in the light 



appreciated by referring to our description of the seed scars on those scales, 

 on p. 199. 



