21G 



LOWER EOCEXE FLORAS OF SOUTHEASTERN XORTH AMERICA. 



Tho large and luorc lanceolate sjx'cinu'n lia;- 

 iu"cd is superficially unlike the smaller one 

 figured and may be thought to he distinct from 

 it by some students. These two extremes are 

 so dose]}- connected by gradations that the 

 conclusion is ii-resistiblc that they represent the 

 limits of variation in leaf form of a single 

 species. 



It was recently descrilied from the Raton 

 fonnation of the southern Rocky Moimtain 

 province in Colorado and New Mexico, a 

 slightly earlier horizon, where it is exceedingly 

 abmadant and varied. Several fine large speci- 

 mens have the apex extended as a strikingly 

 slender acumen. 



Occurrence. — Ackerman formation, Hurleys, 

 Benton County (formerly part of Tippah 

 County), Miss, (collected by E. N. Lowe and 

 E. W. Berr}^) . Lagrange fonnation (in beds of 

 Wilcox age), Puryear, Henry County, Term, 

 (collected by E. W. Berry). ' 



Collections. — U. S. National Museum. 



Family ANONACEffi. 



Genus ANONA Linne.' 



Anona WILCOXL4.NA Berry, n. sp. 



Plate XLI, figures 1 and 2. 



Description. — Leaves of medium size, ellipti- 

 cal in general outline, the tip somewhat nar- 

 rowed and rounded and the base rounded or 

 slightly pointed. Length about 12 centimeters. 

 Maximum width, in the middle part of the leaf, 

 about 4.2.5 centimeters. Margins entire. Tex- 

 ture coriaceous. Petiole short and extremely 

 stout, about 1.25 to 1..5 centimeters long. Mid- 

 rib very stout and prominent. Secondaries 

 stout, eight or nine alternate, rather distant 

 pairs; they diverge from the midrib at angles 

 of 50° to 80°, and sweep upward in broad, sub- 

 parallel curves, becoming parallel with the lat- 

 eral margins, along which they arch for con- 

 siderable distances, especially in the lower half 

 of the leaf. Tertiaries thin but well marked, 

 nearly straight and perctn-rent transverse to 

 the long axis of the leaf. 



This species is wcU marked, as may ])e seen 

 from the figured specimens, which have been 

 chosen to show the range of variation in the 

 character of the base. Remains referable to 

 the genus Anona have not been found in any 

 great abundance in North America. Les- 



1 The Diimo of the genus is often spelled Annona. 



([ucrcux many years ago described a species 

 from the Dakota sandstone of Kansas and an- 

 other from tlie lower Eocene of Colorado. Re- 

 cently Cockerell has described a third Ameri- 

 can species from the Miocene of Florissant, 

 Colo. More than 10 species, based on both 

 seeds and fruits, ranging in age from the Eo- 

 cene to the Pliocene, have been described from 

 the European Tertiary. Ettingshausen - men- 

 tions two new species of Anona leaves in the 

 Alum Bay clays (Ypresian). 



The existing species, many of which are eco- 

 nomically valuable, number about 60, all of 

 them American except two or three forms of 

 Africa and tropical Asia. Several forms are 

 widely cultivated in all tropical countries, and 

 their original home has been a matter of dis- 

 pute, since the cultivation of some species 

 probably antedated the discovery of America. 

 This is indicated by the description of Anona 

 squamosa Linne, wi'itten by Oviedo as early as 

 1535. 



A. de Candolle,' after his extensive systematic 

 studies of the Anonaceae, reached the conclu- 

 sion that Anona was of American origin and 

 that the ancestors of the cosmopolitan culti- 

 vated forms probably came from the West In- 

 dies or from the neighbormg part of the Ameri- 

 can contment. This is unc[uestionably true 

 not only of the cultivated forms but of the 

 genus as a whole, the present and associated 

 species furnishing early Eocene ancestors of 

 the modern forms. 



Among fossil species Anona wilcoxiana Berry 

 may be compared with Anona elliptica Uuger * 

 from the European Miocene, a form with very 

 sunilar leaves. Among recent forms it is 

 scarcely to be distmguished from Anona glabra 

 Limie, the only species that reaches southern 

 Florida — a stout tree of dense growth, com- 

 monly with buttressed roots, that grows in 

 shallow ponds, swampy hammocks, and low 

 stream borders near the coast, associated with 

 ferns of the genera Meniscium, Acrostichmn, 

 and Dryopteris. It is found on both coasts of 

 tropical America and extends through the 

 Bahamas and many of the Antill(>s. It also 

 occurs on the west coast of Africa, having 

 Ijossibly been spread by the very light branches 



! EttinRsliniisen, 0. von, Roy. Soc. London Proc, vol. 30, p. 234, 18S0. 

 3 Geographic botiitiique, p. S59, 1855. 



< Unger, Franz, Syllogo planlarum fossilium, pt. :i, p. 43, pi. 14, flgs.l, 

 2, 1866. 



