262 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. 45. 



COMBRETANTHITES EOCENICA, new species. 



Peduncle stout, curved, about 4 mm. long. Calyx rather deeply 

 4 or 5 lobed, the lobes ovate in outline and with bluntly pointed tips. 

 Corolla polypetalous of 4 or 5 petals alternating with the calyx lobes, 

 long and narrow, seemingly pointed, about twice the length of the 

 calyx lobes. Ovary inferior, style long and slender, probably with a 

 single terminal stigma. Stamens 12 in number with long slender 

 filaments, exserted. Anthers elongate elliptical, two-celled, dehiscing 

 by longitudinal slits. The stamens may vary in length or their 

 apparent variation may be simply a feature of preservation. 



The present species is based on the exceptionally preserved flower 

 shown natural size in figure 1 of the plate, lying across a leaf of Cassia 

 emarginata Berry, the other markings on the 

 leaf being those of a well-marked leaf-spot 

 fungus. It is also to be pointed out that 

 figures 1-3 are from photographs that have 

 not been retouched in any particular. 



I am not sure that appearances that I have 

 interpreted as petals are correctly identified, 

 but it is hard to imagine what else they can 

 possibly represent. The single slender style 

 is also a feature that may be simulated by a 

 filament. As shown in the accompanjdng res- 

 toration the flower is polypetalous regular 

 and perfect. It is represented as having a 

 four-lobed calyx and four petals, although 

 only three calyx lobes and two petals are dis- 

 tinctly seen in the specimen. If four is the cor- 

 rect number, then the stamens are three times 

 as numerous as the petals. The reason for considering that these 

 flowers were capitate or in crowded spikes is their small size, narrow 

 petals, and exserted style and stamens — all characters shared by the 

 flowers of the Mimosacese and Combretacese, the two families whose 

 flowers are most like the fossil. In the Mimosacese the filaments are 

 usually more slender and more elongated as well as more or less united, 

 while they are free in the fossil. The anthers are also much smaller 

 and less elongated in the Mimosaceas. Most of the Combretacese 

 have flowers very similar to the fossil although the stamens are 

 usuaUy reduced in number to twice the number of the petals or of 

 the calyx lobes in the apetalous forms. However, some of the modern 

 forms have thrice as many stamens as petals or calyx lobes. The 

 most similar modern flowers in appearance that I have been able to 

 find are those of Comhretum guanaiense Rusby, from Bolivia, and in 

 this the stamens are only eight in number and more exserted. I 



Fig. 1.— Restoration of com 

 beetanthites eocenica 

 Enlaeqed four times. 



