212 



LOWER EOCEXL: FLUHAS OV SOLTHEASiTEK^■ ^•UKTH AMERICA. 



Leaves, rocogiiiz:i1)l(> as sueli, are not known 

 from the Wilcox, l)ut. a sjx'cies of ^Yi-istolochia 

 is represented hy leaves in the embajnnent 

 area toward the top of the Oaiborne gi-oup 

 (Aristolochia chihorniana Beny, nupnhlished) 

 and a snaaller fniit has been recognized by 

 Knowlton from the lower Eocene of New 

 Mexico (Raton formation). 



The genus i\j-istolochia is repr(>s(>nted in 

 the existing flora by more than 200 species, 

 chiefly vines, which are cdnunonly of gi-eat 

 length, hving in temperate l)ut mostly in 

 tropical countries. The fruits are many se(nl(>d 

 generally six-celled capsules, and a large num- 

 • ber of the modern species have fruits very 

 similar to this fossil species. 



Tliere are more than a dozen descril)e(l 

 fossil species of Aristolochia based on both 

 foliage and fruit, the oldest remains of the 

 fruit being a si)ecies described by Bayer' as 

 Aristolochia tecomiecarpa from the Upper CVe- 

 taceous (Cenomanian) of Bohemia. The pres- 

 ent fruit is not very different from Aristolochia 

 ceningensis Heer^ from the Swiss Miocene, 

 which was also identified by Lesquereux from 

 the Tertiary lignit<'s of Brandon, Vt.^* A 

 large number of fruits i-eferred to Aristolochites 

 have been described from these lig-nites. 



Occurrence. — Lagrange formation (in beds of 

 Wdcox age), li miles west of Grand Junction, 

 in Fayette County, Tenn. (collected l)y E. W. 

 Berry). 



Collection. — U. S. National Museum. 



Order POLYGON ALES. 



Family POLYGONACEffi. 



V enus COCCOLOBIS P. Browne. 



CojcoLOBis EOLiGNiTiCA Bcrrv, n. sp. 



Plate XXXVIII, fisriire 4. 



Description. — Leaves obovat(> or elliptical in 

 general outline, with a broadly rounded or 

 slightly cmarginat(> ape.x and a l)roadly cuneate 

 or slightly decmTcnt bas(>. Length about 9 

 centimeters. Maximum width, in the middle 

 part of the leaf, a])out 4.6 centimeters. Mar- 

 gins entire, slightly undulate. Texture cori- 

 aceous. Petiole stout, about 1..5 centimeters 

 in length. Midrib stout, cxu'ved, prominent 

 on the lower surface of the leaf. Secondaries 



' Bayer, E., K. bohm. Gesell. Wiss. Sitzungsber., 1?99, No. 26, p. 29, 

 text figs. 10, 10a, pi. I, figs. 7, 8, 1%0. 



'HciT, Oswald, Flora tertiaria nclvcU;r, vol. 2, p. ini, pi. 100, 

 fig. lib, laif). 



» Lesquereu-x, I.eo, Geology of \'erraont, vol. 2, p. 7I.>, fig. 131. ISOl. 



thin, distant, irregularly spaced, about six 

 alternate j>airs. They diverge from the mid- 

 rib at angles ranging from 45° to 60° and ])ursu(> 

 a somewhat irregidar, more or less cm-ved, and 

 slighlly flexuous coiu'se, the low<'r on(>s con- 

 tinuing upward ])arallel witli the lateral mar- 

 gins, the Tijiper sliorter and mor(> strongly 

 curved, a ty2)e of secondary venation ordi- 

 narily found in Cornus, Ehamnus, and Ber- 

 cliemia. Tertiaries obsolete. 



This fine leaf is obvitmsly unlike any other 

 member of the Wilcox flora. It resembles in 

 a general way the somewhat smaller leaves of 

 Bourreria P. Browne, a tropical American 

 genus of the Boraginacese, one species of 

 which, Bourreria hai^anerisis Miers, reaches the 

 keys of southern Florida. On the whole the 

 fossil has more of the characters of Coccolobis 

 and may b(> compared with the leaves of the 

 existing Coccolobis laurifolia Jacquin, the 

 pigeon plum, which is such an abundant sea- 

 coast tree of the Florida Keys, of the Bahamas 

 and many of the Antilles, as well as of 

 Venezuela. The genus Coccolobis is confined 

 to America in the existing flora and comprises 

 more than 120 species, which are distributed 

 from southern Florida through the West 

 Indies to Brazd and from Mexico and Central 

 jimerica to Peru. Tliis or a closely allied 

 genus is represented in the Upper Ci'etaceous 

 Tuscaloosa flora of northwestern Alabama, and 

 several species of Coccoloba have been de- 

 scrilx'd by Ettingshausen* from the Aquitanian 

 of Em'ope. A small leaf of questionable affini- 

 ties from Carbon, Wyo., was alco described 

 by Lesquereux as Coccoloba Iseingata,^ and Engel- 

 hardt has described'' a form from the early 

 Tertiary (Eocene or Oligocene) of Coronel, in 

 Chile, which he caUs Phyllites coccolobsefoUa. 



Occurrence. — Lagrange formation (in beds of 

 Wilcox age), Puryear, Heiuy County, Tenn. 

 (collected by E. W. Berry). 



Collection. — U. S. National Museum. 



Coccolobis uvifeeafolia Berry, n. sp. 



Plate LXXXVII, fisuio ,5. 



Description. — Leaves subsessile, elliptical to 

 orl)icular in general outline, with a broadly 



< E1:ling.shauson, 0. von. Die lossile Flora dea Tertiiir-Beckens von 

 Bilin, pt. 1, pp. 88, 89, pi. .10, figs. 1, 2, ISIiC. 



1 1.os(|iieroux, Leo, The Tertiary (lora, p. 208, pi. 35, fig. 7, 1878. 



8 Eiigelhardt, nermann, Senckenbergi.sohc naturf. Gosell. .\bh., vol. 

 16, pt. 4, p. 683, pi. 4, fig. 8b; pi. 12, fig. 0, ISSIl. 



