Bulletin 3. The flora of the Raritan Formation, 1911 - State of New ...

HISTORICA_ SKETCH. 9
IL HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The Raritan and allied, formations, have been the sub)ect of
numerous contributions to'science during the past'fifty years,
while scattered references to these deposits, which extend back
over a century and a half, may be found in the older works.
The Royal Academy of Sciences of Sweden sent the distinguished
naturalist, Peter Kalm, who is commemorated in the
generic'name of our beautiful laurels (KahniaJ to America, in
t749, and the results of his travels and investigations were
subsequently published in three volumes at Stockholm, and after-
_vard translated into English and Freffch. His was, perhaps,
the first contribution to Coastal Plain geology which is worthy
of mention. Twenty-eight years later a German naturalist
Johann David Sehoepf, visited this area, and iu a book published
at Erlangen, ten years later, he records many observations of
interest. The first geologist to attempt any correlation with
Europe was William Maelure, who in various publications covering
the period from I8o 9 to 1817, referred the Coastal Plain
deposits collectively to the "Alluvial formation,' *t_e fourth of
the main divisions of Werner's classification.
Samuel Akerly, in i82o, and "James Pierce, in 1823, discussed
the "alluvial deposits" in the vicinity of Raritan Bay without,
however, having added much that was new.
The 'first author to recognize even in slight measure the complexity
of the Coastal Plain formations was John Finch, an Englishman,
and an ardent collector of fossils. He read a paper
before the Philadelphia .&cademy in 1824, at the dose of his
travels, and on the eve of his departure for England, which was
subsequently published.' Some years later he published a hook
on the same subject. He condemns the term "alluvial" and
points out that.the Coastal Plain deposits o{ Maclure and others
are identical with the newer Secondary an6 Tertiary _ormations
of Europe. The non-marine Cretaceous he correlates on the
Amer. Jour. Sci. (1), NEW VII JERSEY : 31-43, GEOLOGICAL I824. SURVEY