Folks:
Here is another historical trip for those of you into botany:
FROM THE FRIEND, SEVENTH-DAY, EIGHTH MONTH 2, 1890, P. 3.
FOR THE FRIEND.
Brown’s Mills.
When at Glassboro, on our return from a visit to the marl pits of the West Jersey Company, as described in THE FRIEND a week ago, we looked over the window-glass factory of Warrick & Co. Ordinary window-glass is a double silicate of lime and soda—the three ingredients of which it is made, are sand (silica), lime and salt-cake (which contains the soda). I was told that the sand used at the establishment was obtained only a few miles distant. Beds of this white, or glass-sand, are met with in various parts of Southern New Jersey, outside of the limits of the marl districts. They belong to a more recent geological formation than the Cretaceous described in two previous articles, and are considered by Cook, the State Geologist of New Jersey, as belonging to a more recent deposit, which he calls the tertiary. The tertiary covers all of the southern part of New Jersey except near the water where it is overlaid by marshes or alluvial soil of still more recent date.
Professor Cook gives the succession of strata in this formation, as revealed by a deep well dug at Winslow some years ago. In this well, five feet of surface earth were first removed; then—
15 feet of blue and black clay;
95 feet of glass sand;
35 feet of hard, black clay;
10 feet of micaceous sand;
Below this were other layers of clay and marl.
The glass sand appears to be a uniform layer over the whole southern end of the State. It is composed of beautifully white, pure quartzose sand, fine, angular and even-grained. Overlying this and all the other beds, is everywhere to be found a layer of drift clay, gravel and sand, usually stained reddish-yellow by oxide of iron. In some places it is almost pure clay, and in other composed almost entirely of sand. Cook says, “It is probable that at the close of the drift period the whole surface was covered with this deposit, and that the underlying sands and clays have been cut into and exposed by the action of rain and streams of water which have washed away the overlying earth.”
A visit paid on the first of Seventh Month to the bogs in the neighborhood of Brown’s Mills, gave me an opportunity of examining the glass sand, which in the neighborhood of the Rancocas Creek has been swept clean of the overlying drift gravel.
This was an interesting spot for botanical research— for the white sandy soil favors the growth of numerous plants that are less common in other locations. It is the region known as the Pines, because the common Jersey pine finds a congenial home there. At the time of our visit, some of the interesting early-flowering plants had dropped their blossoms. The beds of moss-like pyxidanthera had lost their star-like flowers, so abundant and beautiful in the early spring; the white blossoms had fallen from the low bushes of the sand-myrtle (Leiophyttum buxifolium); the beautiful lupine blossoms had been succeeded by their seed pods, and these had opened and dropped their seeds, and the curious turkey-beard (Xerophyllum), studded the woodland like slender dry sticks, thickly clothed with needle-shaped leaves, but having lost their long spikes of white, lily-shaped flowers. We found, however, a few of them a little belated, which enabled us to imagine the beauty of the plant while still unwithered.
There were, however, many other kinds still in bloom, to delight the eyes of the lover of flowers. One of the most showy of these was the beautiful orchid, Calopogon pulchellus, with one leaf springing from the bulbous root, and a slender stem crowned with from two to eight large pink-colored flowers. It was a real pleasure to gaze on these, so abundantly scattered over the damper part of the ground. And in contrast with them, in the same localities, were the bright orange-colored milkwort (Polygala-Lutea), growing still more profusely. I was much interested, also, in the bright-yellow flowers of a species of bladder-wort (Utricularia), which rooted in the mud where the water was shallow. Some of the species of this plant swim free, and the thread-like leaves are furnished with numerous little air-bladders which support the plant and keep it from sinking.
The cranberry vines were abundant, and were in bloom. We found three species of sun-dew (Drosera), a curious family of plants, whose leaves are thickly clothed with glandular hairs which secrete a sticky fluid. When a small insect alights on one of these leaves, the adjacent hairs bend over and enclose it in their embrace, pouring out the sticky secretion, which quickly deprives the insect of any power to escape; and it is then partially digested, and made to contribute to the nourishment of the plant.
The pitcher-plant, or side-saddle flower (Sarrocenia purpurea), was abundant in the bog, with curious, pitcher-shaped leaves, generally half-filled with fluid, and containing numerous insects which have entered the open mouth of the leaf, and been unable to find their way out of this trap: because it is furnished with stiff bristles pointing inwards. The purple petals had fallen from the flowers, so that we were too late in the season to see it in its greatest beauty.
J.W.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Here is another historical trip for those of you into botany:
FROM THE FRIEND, SEVENTH-DAY, EIGHTH MONTH 2, 1890, P. 3.
FOR THE FRIEND.
Brown’s Mills.
When at Glassboro, on our return from a visit to the marl pits of the West Jersey Company, as described in THE FRIEND a week ago, we looked over the window-glass factory of Warrick & Co. Ordinary window-glass is a double silicate of lime and soda—the three ingredients of which it is made, are sand (silica), lime and salt-cake (which contains the soda). I was told that the sand used at the establishment was obtained only a few miles distant. Beds of this white, or glass-sand, are met with in various parts of Southern New Jersey, outside of the limits of the marl districts. They belong to a more recent geological formation than the Cretaceous described in two previous articles, and are considered by Cook, the State Geologist of New Jersey, as belonging to a more recent deposit, which he calls the tertiary. The tertiary covers all of the southern part of New Jersey except near the water where it is overlaid by marshes or alluvial soil of still more recent date.
Professor Cook gives the succession of strata in this formation, as revealed by a deep well dug at Winslow some years ago. In this well, five feet of surface earth were first removed; then—
15 feet of blue and black clay;
95 feet of glass sand;
35 feet of hard, black clay;
10 feet of micaceous sand;
Below this were other layers of clay and marl.
The glass sand appears to be a uniform layer over the whole southern end of the State. It is composed of beautifully white, pure quartzose sand, fine, angular and even-grained. Overlying this and all the other beds, is everywhere to be found a layer of drift clay, gravel and sand, usually stained reddish-yellow by oxide of iron. In some places it is almost pure clay, and in other composed almost entirely of sand. Cook says, “It is probable that at the close of the drift period the whole surface was covered with this deposit, and that the underlying sands and clays have been cut into and exposed by the action of rain and streams of water which have washed away the overlying earth.”
A visit paid on the first of Seventh Month to the bogs in the neighborhood of Brown’s Mills, gave me an opportunity of examining the glass sand, which in the neighborhood of the Rancocas Creek has been swept clean of the overlying drift gravel.
This was an interesting spot for botanical research— for the white sandy soil favors the growth of numerous plants that are less common in other locations. It is the region known as the Pines, because the common Jersey pine finds a congenial home there. At the time of our visit, some of the interesting early-flowering plants had dropped their blossoms. The beds of moss-like pyxidanthera had lost their star-like flowers, so abundant and beautiful in the early spring; the white blossoms had fallen from the low bushes of the sand-myrtle (Leiophyttum buxifolium); the beautiful lupine blossoms had been succeeded by their seed pods, and these had opened and dropped their seeds, and the curious turkey-beard (Xerophyllum), studded the woodland like slender dry sticks, thickly clothed with needle-shaped leaves, but having lost their long spikes of white, lily-shaped flowers. We found, however, a few of them a little belated, which enabled us to imagine the beauty of the plant while still unwithered.
There were, however, many other kinds still in bloom, to delight the eyes of the lover of flowers. One of the most showy of these was the beautiful orchid, Calopogon pulchellus, with one leaf springing from the bulbous root, and a slender stem crowned with from two to eight large pink-colored flowers. It was a real pleasure to gaze on these, so abundantly scattered over the damper part of the ground. And in contrast with them, in the same localities, were the bright orange-colored milkwort (Polygala-Lutea), growing still more profusely. I was much interested, also, in the bright-yellow flowers of a species of bladder-wort (Utricularia), which rooted in the mud where the water was shallow. Some of the species of this plant swim free, and the thread-like leaves are furnished with numerous little air-bladders which support the plant and keep it from sinking.
The cranberry vines were abundant, and were in bloom. We found three species of sun-dew (Drosera), a curious family of plants, whose leaves are thickly clothed with glandular hairs which secrete a sticky fluid. When a small insect alights on one of these leaves, the adjacent hairs bend over and enclose it in their embrace, pouring out the sticky secretion, which quickly deprives the insect of any power to escape; and it is then partially digested, and made to contribute to the nourishment of the plant.
The pitcher-plant, or side-saddle flower (Sarrocenia purpurea), was abundant in the bog, with curious, pitcher-shaped leaves, generally half-filled with fluid, and containing numerous insects which have entered the open mouth of the leaf, and been unable to find their way out of this trap: because it is furnished with stiff bristles pointing inwards. The purple petals had fallen from the flowers, so that we were too late in the season to see it in its greatest beauty.
J.W.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
