PLEISTOCENE PLANTS FROM ALABAINIA^ 



EDWARD W. BERRY 



In the course of the cooperative study of the Atlantic coastal 

 plain from the Potomac river southward during the past season, 

 plant-bearing beds of Pleistocene age have been discovered at 

 various localities, more particularly in Virginia, North Carolina 

 and Alabama. A rather interesting and highly fossiliferous 

 deposit of this character occurs along the Chattahoochee river in 

 Russell County, Alabama, where the collections upon which the 

 following brief communication is based were made by Dr. L. W. 

 Stephenson of the Federal Survey, who also very kindly furnished 

 the sections here given. The locality is a few hundred yards below 

 Abercrombies Landing on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochee 

 river, and about seven and one-half miles below Columbus, Georgia. 



The recognizable leaf-remains have been found at two levels: 

 they occur in an upper layer of hard, dark drab, rather pure clay 

 which dries to an ash color, and in a lower layer of xery dark 

 impure peat. The leaf-remains found in the clay are fairly perma- 

 nent, but those in the peat are very perishable and have been saved 

 and identified by allowing the material to become thoroughly 

 macerated in water and then carefully floating out the larger frag- 

 ments; from these, sun-prints giving the exact outline are made 

 before the specimens become thoroughly dr^'. If allowed to become 

 too dry they crumble to powder. After the prints have been made 

 the specimens are mounted on small cards and coated with glue, 

 but even in this condition they are extremely fragile and liable to 

 destruction. 



The following two diagrammatical sections were taken about 

 100 yards apart; No. 1 shows the leaf -bearing horizons, the lower 

 of which is partially concealed by land slips, and No. 2 shows a 

 complete section to the water's edge. From the way in which the 

 base of the exposure is concealed in section No. 1, it is impossible 



* Published by permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey. 



