278 



LOWER EOCK.Nt: Fl.lUiAS OF SOUTHEASTEKN XOKTIl AMEHICA. 



ZizYPiirs MEiGSii (Lescjueieux) Berry. 



Plate LXX, (iguros 3-5. 



Ceaiiothus Meigsii. Losqueroux. .\m. T'hilos. Sor. Tran?.. 

 vol. 13, p. 410. pi. 10. fiiis. •')-;. ISfiO. 



Description. — Lesqucreux'.s description, writ- 

 ten in 1869, is as follows: 



C. foliispeliolatis. late ovatis, basi truncatis, cordatisve, 

 iti longum apicem atteniiatis, obtuse seriuiliter porratis, 

 trii)linerviif, nervis secundariis infimis basilaribus, tenui- 

 bus, superioribus crassis, nerve pi'imario Sdba'qualibus, 

 arcuatis, extrorsum inferne ramosis. acrodiomi.s imjier- 

 fertis. 



This species is extremely variable, and in the 

 light of the recently collected material the foie- 

 going diagnosis may be considerabh' amended 

 and amplified. In general these leaves range 

 from ovate-lanceolate to elliptical lanceolate 

 in outline and they appear to he invariably 

 more or less inequilateral. The base ranges 

 fri)m cuneate to very l)roadly rounded and in 

 some specimens markedly cordate. The apex 

 is rather uniformly narrowed and extended as 

 a much elongated slender acumen, which when 

 the lamina is broad, as in Lestjuereux's figure 

 7, shows an abrupt api)roach of the margins at 

 the base of the acumen. Recently collected 

 material shows this acumen even longer and 

 more slender than in the figure cited. The 

 marginal teeth are variable, ranging from small 

 crenate teeth, approaching the serrate in form, 

 to large full rounded crenate teeth. The mar- 

 gins as a rule are entire at the base of the leaf 

 and the teeth become obsolete in the acumen. 

 The petiole is stout and enlarged proximad 

 and is 3 centimeters long in the small specimen 

 figured. The midrib is stout and curved in the 

 falcate forms or curved and recurved in some 

 of the broader leaves. The lateral primaries are 

 stout l)ut much less so than the midrib. They 

 are suboppositc or opposite and suprabasilar, 

 branching from the midrib at more or less acute 

 angles, curving outward, and finally joining a 

 secondary in the upper region of the l)road 

 part of the lamnia. There are several pairs of 

 well-marked camptodrome secondaries from 

 the upper nudrib, and similarly curved camp- 

 todrome secondaries from the outer sides of the 

 lateral primaries, tertiary branches from wliicli 

 enter the marginal teeth. The venation i)e- 

 comes obsolete for the most ])art as the margin 

 is approachet', especially in the u])i)(>r |)art of 

 the leaf. Length ranges from 13 to IS centi- 



meters, the acumen over 5 centimeters long in 

 one specimen. Maximum width 3 to 8 centi- 

 meters, generally about 6 centimeters. 



Le.->quereux recorded this species from the 

 yellow coarse clay of Mi.ssissippi and the soft 

 wliite clay of La Grange, Temi., the specimens 

 from Mississippi having been collected by E. W. 

 IlUgard and those from Teimessee by J. M. 

 Safl'ord. All these types have totally disap- 

 peared. The species has since been found at 

 Safl'ord's original locality or in the immediate 

 vicinity, but there is some uncertainty regard- 

 ing Hilgard's locality in Mississippi. Accord- 

 ing to Lesquereux's statement' the "yellow 

 coarse clay" was from old Winston County, 

 now a part of Choctaw County, but there is a 

 possibility that it came from Raglands Branch 

 in Lafayette County. After canvassing all the 

 possibilities I have decided that the original 

 locality was the one known as Colemans Mill, 

 near New Prospect, Choctaw County. I have 

 not revisited this locality, since the matrix is 

 sandy and the specimens that I have seen from 

 there are for the most part very poor. 



Lesquereux referred the present species to 

 Ceanothus, comparing it with our existing 

 Ceanothus americamis Linne and with Ccano- 

 tlius iilisefolius Linger of the European Tertiary, 

 a species subsequently transferred to Zizyphus 

 by Heer. The American form also appears to 

 l)e more properly referable to the allied genus 

 Zizyphus, as Schimper first pointed out in 1874. 

 It is widely distributed in the Wilcox but never 

 common. I have seen or collected it at sev- 

 eral localities, but by a smgular misfortune the 

 specimens have been broken m getting them 

 out or during their transit to Baltunore, so that 

 there is not a single perfect specimen in the 

 collections, some of the most complete l)eing 

 those figured in the present contribution. 



This magnificent species is a veritable giant 

 compared with either the fossil or with most of 

 the living species of Zizyphus and allied genera, 

 and none of the described forms are in danger 

 of being confused with it. The existing species 

 number about two score and are largely con- 

 fined to the Indo-Malayan Tropics, only a single 

 s])ecies of the long line of Cretaceous and Ter- 

 tiary ancestors being left in the American 

 Tropics. Some of the East Indian species are 

 closer to Zizyphus meigsii than are the tropical 



1 .\m. Pliilus. Soc. Trans., vol. \i, p. 424, l.SO'J. 



