55 



Glumacece. 



Phragmites cretaceus, Lesqx., PI. i, Fig. 13, 14; PI. xxix, Fig. 7. 

 Arundo cretaceus, Lesqx., American Journal Science and Arts, he. tit., p. 92. 



The species was described from two small imperfect specimens, one 

 representing a small fragment of a leaf, Fig. 14, the other a knot of a branch 

 or a root similar to organs of this kind, as they would appear when separated 

 from the stem of an Arundo or a Phragmites. This last specimen is a cir- 

 cular, button-like convex scar, 2 centimeters broad, marked at the border or 

 outside of the convex center by two parallel rows of verrucose, irregular, 

 mostly round, convex papilla?; the largest 1£ millimeters wide. It is com- 

 parable to the scars of Arundo gopperti, Heer, as represented in Flora Tert. 

 Helvct,, (p. 62, PI. xxiii, Figs. 2, 3,) and especially PI. xxii, Fig. 3 b , being, 

 however, twice as large. Scars of the same form, but not quite as distinct, 

 are also seen as branch scars of Phragmites oeningensis in the same work, (PI. 

 xxiv, Figs. 1, 2.) The generic relation of those small fragments was contest- 

 able. Recently, Prof. 13. F. Mudge has discovered in concretions of the 

 Dakota group of Kansas a fine specimen, which, representing the same species 

 relates it more evidently to Phragmites than to Arundo. It represents, as seen 

 PI. xxix, Fig. 7, the upper part of a linear lanceolate leaf, 12 centimeters 

 long, about 3 centimeters wide at the base of the preserved fragment, gradually 

 tapering to an obtuse point, with equidistant, parallel, distinct primary nerves, 

 and three or four intermediate thin vinelets. The consistence of the leaf is 

 thickish or coriaceous, and the vinelets distinguishable only where the epi- 

 dermis has been destroyed. This leaf is, in its characters, similar to the 

 fragments of leaves represented by Heer, (Joe. tit., Figs. 1, 5, 8, of the same 

 PI., xxv,) where the characters of Phragmites oeningensis are so finely illus- 

 trated. This leaf of ours shows the same form in its upper part, also 

 same kind of nervation, differing only by the narrower space between the 

 primary nerves. As this space varies in leaves of the Tertiary species ac- 

 cording to their width, and as it is also seen diminishing on the Cretaceous 

 leaf in ascending to the point, the difference is unimportant. Specifically 

 this new species of Phragmites is separated from the Tertiary one by its 

 coriaceous consistence, rendering the vinelets discernible only under the thick 

 epidermis, and by the large size of the verrucose knots. 



Habitat. — Near Fort Harker, Leconte ; Western Kansas, Mudge. 



