310 THE COASTAL PLAIN OF NORTH CAROLINA.

elegans Berry. The leaf layers at this locality, which consist entirely of closely
matted fossil leaves, are strikingly similar to the matted masses of recent
leaves which float down our southern rivers with the spring floods, and suggest
that the diversity in the fossil flora at this locality may be due to its favor-
able location near the mouth of a Cretaceous river down which floated the
remains of Andromeda, Celastrophyllum, Cinnamomum, Diospyros, Juglans,
Leguminosites, Liriodendron, Myrsine, Pterospermites, Quercus, Sequoia, etc.,
from their natural upland habitats, while Araucaria, Salix, Magnolia, Mala-
poenna, Pisonia, Phragmites, etc., were added from the coastal zone, together
with Pistia, which grew in the rivers above the influence of salinity. About
75 different species have been identified from all of the localities.

“This flora is clearly a single unit, for of the common forms at the extreme
top of the formation at the lower Black River localities (Atlantic Coast Line
Railroad bridge and Horrell Landing), Araucaria bladenensis Berry occurs
immediately above the contact of the Black Creek with the underlying Patuxent
formation along Rockfish Creek and Pistia Nordenshioldi (Heer) Berry occurs
at Blackmans Bluff on the upper Neuse River towards the landward margin
of the formation. Likewise the plants from the most northerly outcrops along
the Tar River show exactly the same forms as occur on the lower Black River
100 miles to the southward and 50 miles from the landward margin of the
formation.

“The Black Creek flora is unquestionably of Upper Cretaceous age. It is
more complex and modern in its composition than any known Lower Creta-

ceous flora, not a single dicotyledon being known from the Pnglish Gault, while

the representation of this group of plants in the corresponding Albian of conti-
nental Europe is very meager indeed; in the Black Creek, on the other hand,
70 per cent of the species belong to this class. Furthermore, the Black Creek
altogether lacks the fern element which is so prominent in the Lower Creta-
ceous, and the gymnosperms are less varied than in even the basal forma-
tions of the Upper Cretaceous (Raritan, Atane).

“There are several Black Creek species that are deserving of special empha-
sis in any consideration of correlation. Among these Araucaria bladenensis
Berry is the most important, being found often in great abundance, at 14 out
of the 21 plant localities in the formation. It occurs also in the Black Creek
beds of South Carolina, in the equivalent of the Hutaw along the Chattahoo-
chee River in western Georgia, at the summit of the Tuscaloosa formation in
Alabama, and also at the summit of the Magothy formation in Maryland. The
nearest allies of this species are Araucarites ovatus Hollick of the Magothy
formation and Araucaria Toucasi Sap. of the Turonian of France. Two other
species of this genus occur in the Black Creek formation, but no representatives
of this type have ever been found in deposits of Raritan age. Ficus stephen-
soni Berry, a new species of fig, is confined to the Black Creek and to the
Middendorf beds of South Carolina. Its nearest relative is a species described
by Lesquereux from the Dakota Group. Leguminosites robiniafolia Berry,
another new species, is likewise confined to the Black Creek and Middendorf
beds, as is also Quercus pseudowestfalica Berry. The writer has elsewhere
emphasized the presence of oaks in any abundance as a feature indicating
the post-Raritan age of the Magothy and allied formations. Two species of
Quercus are described from the Black Creek, and the apparently synchronous

ark eg ted