DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES— LAUEINE^. 213 



to the genera Lauriis or Ptrsea, Tetrantheia, Cinnamomum, and Daplirwgene. 

 I have formerly described, from the Lower Lignitic Eocene of the Mississippi, 

 one species of haurus^ two of Persea, and one Cinnamomum. A fragment 

 described in the Geological Report of Prof SafTord, under the nameof Persea 

 Carolinensis, is, though positively referable lo the Laurinece, specifically uni- 

 dentifiable. From the Rocky Mountain Lignitic, ten species are described here, 

 all from specimens of the Eocene formation from Point of Rocks to Evans- 

 ton. None has been observed at Carbon, and none in the Green River group. 

 I have seen a large number of specimens of two species of Lourus, with two 

 of Cinnainomum, from a Tertiary formation of Oregon (Coral Hollow), which, 

 from the associated forms, seems referable to the Lower Lignitic. Heer has 

 a Laurus Coloinbi, from Barras Inlet, British Columbia, probably of the same 

 period. We could therefore consider all our "American representatives of 

 LaurinecB as Eocene, except for one species only, a Persea, closely related to 

 the present F. Carolinensis^ and found in the Upper Tertiary, or Pliocene 

 Chalk Bluffs of California. 



LAITETJS, Linn. 



Leaves peuDineived, similar to those of the penninerved Laurineve. 



This definition i.s translated from the Suzanne Flora by Saporta. As I 

 am unable to find any character, either in the form of the leaves or in their 

 nervation, for the separation of Laurus, Persea, and other related genera, I 

 describe, under this general, rather than generic, appellation, all the Lignitic 

 species of Laurineee represented only by penninerved leaves. 



Liaiirus socialis,Bp. nov. 



Plate XXXVI, Figs. 1, a, 3, 4, 7. 



Leaves comparatively large, subcoria'eous, broadly laiiceoliie, obtusely acuminate or pointed, 

 rounded or broadly < uneate to the petiole ; lateral neives slender, open, curved in passing to tUe slightly 

 undulate borders ; drupe globular, 



I had originally considered all the leaves (figs. 1 to 8) as referable to the 

 same species, L.primigenia, Ung., for the nervation, the areolation, and the 

 petiole are all of the same character; and, in comparing the different forms 

 and the variations of size of the leaves from a large number of specimens, 

 the transitional links between them seemed to render their separation into 

 two species extremely hazardous. Count Saporta, however, who has com- 

 pared original specimens with these figures, admits two species, this one 



