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 preliminary 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 Cretaceous clays of Greenland and Aachen (Aix la Chapelle), which not only indicates a chronological parallelism, but shows a remarkable and unexpected similarity in the vegetation of these widely separated countries in the middle and last half of the Cretaceous age. The botanical character of the flora of the Amboy clays will be seen from the following brief synopsis :

"Alga.-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 Dicksonia, Gleichenia, and Aspidium.

"Cycads.-Two species, probably identical with the forms from Greenland described by Heer under the names of Podozamites marginatus and P. tenuinervis.

* March, 1886.

"Conifers.-Fourteen species, belonging to the genera Moriconia, Brachyphyllum, Cunninghamites, Pinus, Sequoia, and others referred by Heer to Juniperus, Libocedrus, Frenelopsis, Thuya, and Dammara. Of these, the most abundant and most interesting are Moriconia cyclotoxon-the most beautiful of conifers-and Cunninghamites elegans, both of which occur in the Cretaceous clays of Aachen, Prussia, and Patoot, Greenland. The Brachyphyllum was a large and strong species, with imbricated cones, eight inches in length.

"The angiosperms form about seventy species, which include three of Magnolia, four of Liriodendron, three or four of Salix, three of Celastrophyllum (of which one is identical with a Greenland species), one Celastrus (also found in Greenland), four or five Aralias, two Sassafras, one Cinnamomum, one Hedera; with leaves that are apparently identical with those described by Heer as belonging to Andromeda, Cissites, Cornus, Dewalquea, Diospyros, Eucalyptus, Ficus, Ilex, Juglans, Laurus, Menispermites, Myrica, Myrsine, Prunus, Rhamnus, and others not yet determined.

"Some of the Aralias had palmately-lobed leaves, nearly a foot in diameter, and two of the tulip-trees (Liriodendron) had. leaves quite as large as those of the living species. One of these had deeply lobed leaves, like those of the white oak. Of the other, the leaves resembled those of the recent tulip-tree, but were larger. Both had the peculiar emargination and the nervation of Liriodendron.

"Among the most interesting plants of the collection are fine species of Bauhinia and Hymenæa. Of these, the first is represented by a large number of leaves, some of which are six or seven inches in diameter. They are deeply bilobed, and have the peculiar and characteristic form and nervation of the leaves of this genus. Bauhinia is a leguminous genus allied to Cercis, and now in

habits tropical and warm temperate climates in both hemispheres. Only one species occurs in the United States, Bauhinia lunarioides, Gray, found by Dr. Bigelow on the Rio Grande.

"Hymenea is another of the leguminosa, and inhabits tropical America. A species of this genus has been found in the Upper Cretaceous of France, but quite different from the one before us, in which the leaves are much larger, and the leaflets are united in a common petiole, which is winged; this is a modification not found in the living species, and one which brings it nearer to Bauhinia.

"But the most surprising discovery yet made is that of a number of quite large helianthoid flowers, which I have called Palæanthus. These are three to four inches in diameter, and exhibit a scaly involucre, enclosing what much resembles a fleshy receptacle with achenia. From the border of this radiate a number of ray florets, one to two inches in length, which are persistent and must have been scarious, like those of Helichrysum. Though these flowers so much resemble those of the compositæ, we are not yet warranted in asserting that such is certainly their character. In the Jurassic rocks of Europe and India some flowers not very unlike these have been found, which have been named Williamsonia, and referred to cycads by Carruthers. A similar fossil has been found in the Cretaceous rocks of Greenland, and named by Heer Williamsonia cretacea, but he questions the reference of the genus to the Cycadeæ, and agrees with Nathorst in considering all the species of Williamsonia as parasitic flowers, allied to Brugmansia or Rafflesia. The Marquis of Saporta regards them as monocotyledons, similar to Pandanus. More specimens of the flowers now exhibited will perhaps prove what we can now only regard as probable-that the Compositæ, like the Leguminosa, Magnoliaceæ, Celastraceæ, and other highly organised plants, formed part

of the Cretaceous flora. No composite flowers have before been found in the fossil state, and, as these are among the most complex and specialised forms of florescence, it has been supposed that they belonged only to the recent epoch, where they were the result of a long series of formative changes."

The above presents some interesting new types not heretofore found in the Middle Cretaceous. More especially the occurrence of large flowers of the composite type presents a startling illustration of the early appearance of a very elevated and complex form. Great interest also attaches to these Amboy beds, as serving, with those of Aix and Greenland, to show that the margins of the Atlantic were occupied with a flora similar to that occurring at the same time in the interior plateau of North America and on the Pacific slope.

The beds at Aix-la-Chapelle are, however, probably somewhat newer than the Dakota or Amboy beds, and correspond more nearly in age with those of the Cretaceous coal-field of Vancouver Island, where there is a very rich Upper Cretaceous flora, which I have noticed in detail in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada."* In these Upper Cretaceous beds there are fanpalms as far north at least as the latitude of 49°, indicating a very mild climate at this period. This inference is corroborated by the Upper Cretaceous flora of Atané and Patoot in Greenland, as described by Heer.

The dicotyledonous plants above referred to are trees and shrubs. Of the herbaceous exogens of the period we know less. Obviously their leaves are less likely to find their way into aqueous deposits than the leaves of trees. They are, besides, more perishable, and in densely wooded countries there are comparatively few herbaceous plants. I have examined the beds of mud deposited at the mouth

* Vol. ii., 1884.

of a woodland streamlet, and have found them stored with the fallen leaves of trees, but it was in vain to search for the leaves of herbaceous plants.

The climate of North America and Europe, represented by the Cenomanian vegetation, is not tropical but warm temperate; but the flora was more uniform than at present, indicating a very equable climate and the possibility of temperate genera existing within the Arctic circle, and it would seem to have become warmer toward the close of the period.

The flora of the Cenomanian is separated in most countries from that of the Senonian, or uppermost Cretaceous, by a marine formation holding few plants. This depends on great movements of elevation and depression, to which we must refer in the sequel. In a few regions, however, as in the vicinity of the Peace River in Canada, there are plant-bearing beds which serve to bridge over the interval between the Early Cenomanian and the later Cretaceous.*

To this interval also would seem to belong the Belly River series of western Canada, which contains important beds of coal, but is closely associated with the marine Fort Pierre series. A very curious herbaceous

a

FIG. 76.-Brasenia antiqua. Upper Cretaceous, South Saskatchewan River. Natural size. a, b, Diagrams of venation, slightly enlarged.

plant of this group, which I have named Brasenia antiqua, occurs in the beds associated with one of the coals. It is a close ally of the modern B. peltata, an aquatic plant which occurs in British Columbia and in eastern

* See paper by the author in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada," 1882.