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

4° THE, RARITAN FLORA.
been recorded from a large number of Cretaceous localities and
becomes even more cosmopolitan in the Tertiary, but is restricted
in modern times to the Australian region.
There are 9 Raritan species of Ulmbell_es, forming 7_
of the angiosperms represented. This is about one-third the
number present in the Dakota Group. These include 7 species
of Arallct whose modern relatives are to be found, in allied genera
of the warmer regions of the globe. There is a very doubtfully
identified species of Viburnum and a species of Cor_zophyllum
which is closely allied to species of Comus found in the Magothy
and Tuscaloosa formations, the Atane beds and the Dakota
Group.
The order Erlcales has 4 species of Andromeda in the Raritan
flora, and the order Primulales has 3 species of Myrsin_e,
all with an outside distribution and with modern representatives
in warmer climes.
The order Ebenales is represented by 3 species of Diosp3_
ros, one of which is very abundant both in New Jersey and elsewhere;
and the order Gentianales is represented by a single
species of Accrates.
While the flora as a whole differs from any modern American
flora with which it may be compared by the association of
forms which have since become segregated by the diversified
climate of later geological time, it is distinctly suggestive of
existing floras, meaning by this that it is the earliest known
flora in which the same plant groups which dominate in the
present _qora of the globe are largely represented.
Of the 78 genera known from the Rarltan formation, only 32
are extinct, and _i of these genera are gymr_osperms, or lower
plants, and of the remainder about a dozen belong to genera
like Calycites, Carpolithus, Palaeanthus, Leguminosites, etc. Of
the 45 known genera of Raritan Angiospermae, only ii have
since passed entirely away.
With the exception of the Arancarie,'e, Proteaeeze and Eucalyptus,
which have since become gradually restricted to the southern
.hemisphere, we would have no difficulty in acclim.itizing the
Raritan flora in our present Gulf States, and the modern representatives
of the groups since become antipodean would flourish
NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY