DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— ANON ACE^. 251 



In tlic records of the European fossil floras, no species of Asim'uia is 

 mentioned. Tliey describe, however, nine species of Anona from the Mio- 

 cene. It was, tlierefore, witii some hesitation that I referred to this genus 

 tlie leaves described here. From the examination of the figures, Saporta 

 considers their attribution to the Anonaceee as legitimate. Numerous species 

 of Anona live now in the West India Islands, and in equatorial regions 

 of the continents of Asia and of America. The association of the fossil 

 leaves with those of species of a temperate climate would be a reason for their 

 reference to Asimina, even if these characters did not fully agree with those 

 of this genus as now represented. 



Asiuiiiia Eocenica, Lesqz. 

 Plate XLIII, Figs. 5-8. 



Asimina Eocenica, Lesqx., Annual Eeport, 1872, p. 387. 



Leaves very entire, lanceolate, equally gradually tapeiiug downward to a short, thick petiole 

 and upward to a point; nervation pinnate, camptodroine. 



I have seen a large number of specimens of these leaves, varying in size 

 from eight to fifteen centimeters long and from two and a half to four centi- 

 meters broad in the middle, where they are the widest, and there oblong, 

 gradually narrowing upward and downward. The consistence of the leaves 

 is somewhat thick, but not coriaceous; the midrib thick, the lateral veins 

 numerous, parallel, all under the same angle of divergence of 50°, slightly 

 curved in traversing the lamina, generally simple or branching once toward 

 the borders, which they follow in a series of bows, formed by anastomoses 

 with veinlets or branches. The nervilles are distinctly marked, at least upon 

 some well-preserved specimens like the one of fig. 8; they are generally 

 joined in the middle of the areas by oblique veinlets, forming large equilateral 

 meshes, the ullimate areolation being indiscernible. These leaves differ 

 especially from our A. triloba by their oblong-lanceolate shape, those of the 

 living species being generally enlarged upward, and more distinctly oblong- 

 obovate, and proportionally broader. The nervation, compared in both the 

 small and the large leaves of the living species, fully agrees with that of these 

 fossil leaves, the lateral veins becoming closer and more distinctly marked in 

 the small leaves, as it is in fig. 5. It is the same with the tertiary interme- 

 diate nerves, which are scarcely, if ever, distinctly marked upon the small or 

 middle-sized leaves of the Papaw, while they appear, if not numerous, at 

 least perfectly distinct in the large ones. A fruit referable to this genus is 



