LATER CRETACEOUS AND KAINOZOIC. 



203 



in the Middle Cretaceous with at least nine American 

 species. 



In New Jersey the Amboy clays are referred to the 

 same age with the Dakota beds of the West. In these 

 Dr. Newberry has found a rich flora, including many 

 angiosperms. The following is condensed from a pre- 

 liminary notice in the " Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical 

 Club":* 



" The flora of the Amboy clays is closely related to 

 that of the Dakota group — most of the genera and some 

 of the species being identical — so that we may conclude 

 they were nearly contemporaneous, though the absence in 

 New Jersey of the Fort Benton and Niobrara groups of 

 the upper Missouri and the apparent synchronism of the 

 New Jersey marls and the Pierre group indicate that the 

 Dakota is a little the older. 



" At least one-third of the species of the Amboy clays 

 seem to be identical with leaves found in the Upper Cre- 

 taceous clays of Greenland and Aachen (Aix la Chapelle), 

 which not only indicates a chronological parallelism, but 

 shows a remarkable and unexpected similarity in the vege- 

 tation of these widely separated countries in the middle 

 and last half of the Cretaceous age. The botanical char- 

 acter of the flora of the Amboy clays will be seen from the 

 following brief synopsis : 



" Algce. — A small and delicate form, allied to Chon- 

 drites. 



"Ferns. — Twelve species, generally similar and in 

 part identical with those described by Heer from the 

 Cretaceous beds of Greenland, and referred to the genera 

 Dic~ksonia 9 Gleichenia, and Aspidium. 



66 Cycads. — Two species, probably identical with the 

 forms from Greenland described by Heer under the 

 names of Podozamites marginatus and P. tenuinervis. 



* March, 1886. 



