136 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. 



IHj'rica! Lessigij, Lesqz. 



Plate LXIV, Fig. 1. 

 Myrica t Lessigii, Lesqx., Annual Report, 1874, p. 312. 



Leaf coriaceous, very largo, obloug in outline, deeply pinnately lobed ; lobes opposite, ovate- 

 lanceolate, taper-pointed, slightly broader in the lower part, at an open angle of divergence, separated 

 to near the midrib, where they are joined in broad obtuse sinuses ; middle nerve very broad ; secondary 

 veins proportionally thick, mixed. 



If the leaf represented by the figured fragment does belong to the 

 Coinptonice, it is indeed of an enormous size, for the preserved part, which 

 seems to be one-half of the leaf only, is twenty-two centimeters long, and 

 the lobes, from the middle nerve to the top, measure more than nine centi- 

 meters, showing the width of the leaves to be at least eighteen centimeters. 

 The midrib is very thick; the secondary nerves are of two orders: those of 

 the first are strong, ascend to the point of the lobes, and branch on each side; 

 those of the second are narrower, and come out of the middle nerve also. 

 They are either short, passing up to the base of the sinuses, there diverging on 

 each side, and following the borders in festoons, anastomosing with fibrillse, 

 or longer, traversing the large areas between the base oP the secondary veins 

 and the borders of the lobes, dissolving either in branches or fibrillse,, in right 

 angle, as in the former species, which it much resembles by the characters of 

 the nervation. The ultimate areolation is formed, as represented in the 

 middle of the lower lobe of the figure, by subdivision nearly in right angle 

 of the primary areolae, in a very small quadrangular or polygonal reticulation. 



Though the characters of nervation are those of Comptonia, remarkably 

 similar indeed to those of Myrica (Comptonia) Matheroniana, Sap. (fit., ii, 2, 

 p. 93, pi. 5, fig. 7), beautifully represented in the enlarged figure (7 a), it 

 is difficult to suppose a leaf of this genus as large as the one represented 

 here. I have already explained what reasons induce me to describe it in this 

 section. The celebrated author of the l^tudes, quoted above, objects to this 

 reference, and considers the fragment as part of a leaflet of some kind of 

 AraliacecB, like Aralia multijida. Sap. (Et., i, 1, p. 115, pi. xii, fig. 1), a leaf 

 palmately divided nearly to the top of the petiole in nine-lobed leaflets, vary- 

 ing from six to twelve centimeters long. The mode of division of these 

 leaflets has indeed some likeness to that of our fragment, but the characters 

 of nervation are somewhat different. I am unable to decide the question, 

 from want of materials for comparison. The consistence of this leaf seems 

 to have been hard, thick, and membranaceous at the same time, the nervation 

 being clearly defined in l)lack lines upon the brown color of the specimen. 



I liave lately received, from Rev. A. Lakes and from Golden, a number 



