75 



Laurus macrocarpa, Lesqx., American Journal of Science and Arts, (2), xlvi, 

 1868, p. 98. 



The fruit represents an oval nutlet a little more than 1 centimeter long, 

 8 millimeters broad, surrounded apparently by a pericarp 1£ millimeters 

 thick, which seems to have been of a fibrous texture. The nut is marked in 

 its length by thin, equidistant, scarcely discernible lines or ribs, and undulately 

 wrinkled across ; the pericarp being split all around nearly at equal distance 

 in fissures enlarged to the point of contact with the nut, and corresponding 

 with the wrinkles marked upon its surface. The pedicel, which was easily 

 detached from, or scarcely adherent to the fruit, is club-shaped, and marked 

 upon its horizontal surface, or upon the face in contact with the fruit, by four 

 round, small perforations, which appear like scars of vascular dots. This fruit 

 is comparable to that of a number of species of Laurinece: Laurus canariensis, 

 Web., as figured by Heer in his Tertiary Flora ; Phcebe triplinervis, Gr., a 

 species of our time, inhabiting Cuba ; especially Sassafras officinalis, Nees., 

 and a number of fossil fruits referred to the genus Cinnamomum. 



Habitat. — Near Decatur, Nebraska, Hayden. 



Persea leconteana, Lesqx., PI. xxviii, Fig. 1. 



Leaf large, oblong-ovate, lanceolate-pointed ; borders entire, undulate ; nervation pinnate ; lower 

 secondary veins distant, curving near and along the borders, and ascending to the middle of the leaf; 

 upper veins more open and shorter. 



Sassafras (?) leconteanum, Lesqx., Transactions of the American Philosophical 



Society, vol. xiii, p. 431, PI. xxiii, Fig. 1. 



The texture of this leaf is not very thick; the figured fragment is 14 

 centimeters long, (the point and the base of the leaf broken,) h\ centimeters 

 broad, of an oblong oval form, apparently pointed and gradually narrowed to 

 its base ; lower secondary veins thinner than the upper ones, following the 

 borders, or on a more acute angle of divergence ; all camptodrome, more or 

 less undulate ; medial nerve of medium thickness. 



On the description and figure of this leaf in Trans., {loc. cit.,) from which 

 our figure is copied, Schimper remarks, (Pal. Veget., vol. 2, p. 836,) that this leaf 

 is, indeed, referable to the Lauracete, hut that it is doubtful if it belongs to a Sas- 

 safras. The relation by the direction of the veins and the form of the leaf 

 is with fossil species of Benzoin, described from the Tertiary of Europe, and 

 with species of Nectandra and Lindera of our time. Heer, in his remarks 

 (in litter.) on the same leaf, is disposed to refer it to Magnolia. The leaf 



