334 
GEOLOGY: E. W. BERRY 
Proc. N. a. S. 
ward in all of the sections the plant evidence has rapidly diminished in 
both variety and quality. A knowledge of the Ripley flora not only serves 
to offset this condition and furnish a basis for more precisely evaluating 
the passing of Cretaceous time, but it introduces us to many of the smaller 
and more delicate forms that almost invariably fail of preservation in coarse 
deposits. 
Examples of the relative paucity of the later Cretaceous floras of the 
Atlantic Coastal Plain are furnished by noting that the Tuscaloosa, Raritan 
and Magothy floras comprise about 150 species each whereas when I pub- 
lished the Upper Cretaceous Floras of the World in 1916 I listed but 9 
species from the Ripley formation in Georgia, two from beds of that age 
in Alabama and three from Tennessee. A foreign parallel may be taken 
from the Bohemia area. Here the Perucer beds (Cenomanian) have 
furnished 184 species, the Turonian 47 and the Chlomeker beds (Bms- 
cherian) but 32. 
The present discoveries disclose the remains of 124 species complete 
enough for descriptive purposes, of which 86 are new to science. They 
are referred to 62 genera in 38 families and 25 orders. Thirty of the 
genera or 49% are extinct, and all but one of the species and about a dozen 
of the genera are not found in the Eocene. 
Contrasts with the earlier Upper Cretaceous floras are the scanty repre- 
sentation of the gymnosperms, here reduced to 6 species, and the absence 
of traces Sequoia or cycads. Familiar types not present are Magnolia, 
and Diospyros, and there are no certainly identified Proteaceae. In a 
general way the flora suggests slightly warmer climates than those that 
preceded it during Upper Cretaceous times, and there are a considerable 
number of types that appear to be ancestral to members of the lower 
Eocene flora of the Mississippi Embayment region. 
The flora contains but 5 ferns, 7 monocotyledons and 105 dicotyledons, 
of which last 94 are Choripetalae and 11 Gamopetalae. The largest 
alliances are the Leguminosae with 14 species, the Lauraceae with 12, 
the Myricaceae with 11 and the Moraceae with 10. The largest genera 
are Myrica with 11 species, Ficus with 9 and Celastrophyllum with 6. 
Compared with floras in other areas the Ripley flora of Western Tennes- 
see shows little in common with the Laramie flora of the West. It does 
contain a number of elements common to the Montana Group floras, 
particularly the flora of the Vermejo formation of Colorado and New 
Mexico. There are also similarities with the flora of the Patoot beds of 
Greenland and the upper Emscherian and lower Aturian (Campanian) 
floras of Western Europe. 
A complete account of the Ripley flora has been prepared which will 
be published by the U. S. Geological Survey. 
