DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— AEALIACE^. 237 



Aralia notata, Lesqz. 



Plate XXXIX, Figs. 2-4. 



Platanua dubia, Lesqx., Annaal Report, 1873, p. 406.* 



Leaves Bubcoriaceous ; palmately three- or five-lobed, broadly cuneate or truncate to the petiole ; 

 lobes short, ovate, obtuse ; secondary nerves close, numerous, canjptodrome, united by simple nervilles in 

 right angle to the veins. 



The leaves of this species are of layge size; for, though it is represented 

 in Dr. Hayden's collection by a large number of specimens, all are mere frag- 

 ments, the best of which have been figured. Fig. 2 represents a trilobate 

 leaf This form is not as common as that of the five-lobed leaves:, which is 

 recognized by the division of the lower lateral nerves of fig. 4, a division 

 similar to that of the former species (fig. 1). Fig. 3 shows the border side 

 of a large leaf, with the nervilles distinct; other fragm.ents of large lobes 

 represent them, as in fig. 2, short, ovate, obtusely pointed or longer, tapering 

 to an obtuse point, mostly perfectly entire, and then with all the lateral 

 veins close, camptodrome, and straight from the primary nerves to quite near 

 the borders, where they abruptly curve. This species seems very closely 

 allied to Platnnus nohitis, Newby. (Later Extinct Floras of North America, 

 p. 67); I should not hesitate to consider it as identical, but for the character 

 of the lateral nerves, which are described by the author as straight, and 

 terminating in the teeth of the margin. In this species, the borders are 

 entire and the lateral nerves camptodrome. The difference may be merely 

 casual; for one of the specimens from Troublesome Creek has the close 

 secondary veins camptodrome along the borders of the inner side of the lobes, 

 while on the outer side the borders are ob.scurely cut by a few small teeth, 

 into which the veins enter as craspedodrome. Other specimens, those of 

 Elk and Yellow Creek, have the characters of P. nob'dis. Palmately nerved 

 species of fossil Aralia liave the same variation: A. primigenia (De La Hai-pe), 

 a species from Mount Bolca; the fine A. Hercules, Ung.; Araliopsis mirahiU.s, 

 also from the Dakota group, all have the borders of the lobes either entire 

 or dentate, according to the disposition of the lateral veins, and the difference 

 is sometimes observable upon two parts of the same leaf Platanus Hercules^ 

 Ung., to which the species described here is closely related, has been recog- 

 nized by modern authors as an Aralia of the section of the Oreopanax. It 

 is evidently, like this species, a Cretaceous type, represented in the Dakota 

 group by the leaves originally described as Liquidambar intcgri folium. 



* The specific name had to be changed, as an Aralia dnbia is described from the European Miocene. 



