140 CONTRIBUTIONS TO PAL^ONTOLOGY 



Laurophyllum wardiana (Knowlton) Dorf, n. comb. 

 (Plate 9, Fig. 6) 



Laurus wardiana Knowlton, U. S. Geol. Surv. BuU. 152, 129, 1898. Berry, U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 91, 



13, 1916. Knowlton, U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 130, 144, pl. 16, fig. 1, 1922. Berry, U. S. Geol. Surv. 



Prof. Paper 1S5-F, 132, pl. 26, fig. 3, 1934. Dorf, BuU. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 51, 218, 222, 225, 1940. 

 Laurus ocoteoides Lesquereux, Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., vol. 7, 215, pl. 36, fig. 10, 1878; U. S. Geol. and 



Geog. Surv. Terr., Ann. Rept. (1876), 510, 1878. (Homonym Laurus ocoteaioides Massalongo, Syn. FI. 



Foss. Senogalliensis, 57, pl. 24, fig. 3, pl. 40, fig. 1, 1858.] 



The nearly complete specimen figured here is the best of 3 specimens of this leaf form in the 

 collections. These are clearly indistinguishable from the type and figured specimens of the 

 Laramie species originally referred by Lesquereux to Laurus ocoteoides, a name preoccupied by 

 Massalongo. The original description of this species was as follows: 



"Leaf long, coriaceous, narrowly lanceolate, gradually tapering from below the middle 

 upward to an obtuse acumen, cuneate to the petiole; lateral veins thin, open, subequidistant, 

 close, slightiy curved." 



Although the essential characters of the leaf of this species are well defined, the species is 

 apparentlj' not a common form in the late Cretaceous of the Rocky Mountain region. It is 

 at present known only from a few specimens frora each of the following formations: Laramie, 

 Hell Creek, Medicine Bow (?), lower Dawson (?),' and the type Lance. There is a similarity in 

 leaf form to the Laramie specimens referred to Ficus navicularis Cockerell.- Both the figured 

 and the type specimens of this species indicate, however, striking differences in the areolated 

 tertiary venation. 



There seems Httle justification for tlie positive reference of this species to the modern genus 

 Laurus. As Berry has pointed out, these leaves "cannot be certainly distinguished from the 

 leaves of a number of existing genera such as Nectandra, Oreodaphne, and Mespilodaphne." 



Occurrence — Localitj'^ P3859. 



Collection—l! . C. Mus. Pal., Plesiotype No. 2511. 



Family CERCIDIPHYLLACE.E 



Genus CERCIDIPHYLLUM Siebold and Zuccarini 



Cercidiphyllum arcticum (Heer) Brown 



(Plate 10, Fig. 5) 



Cercidiphyllum arcticum (Heer) Brown, Jour. Paleontol., vol. 13, 492, pl. 53, pl. 54, figs. 1-7, 12, 13, 17, pl. 56, 



figs. l-6a, 10, 11, 1939 (see complete synonymy). 

 PhyUites colubrirwides Dorf, BuU. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 51, 218, 222, 225, 1940 (not Dorf, 1938). 



There is a single complete specimen from Locality P3854 which I had previously regarded 

 as a variant of the normal leaf form of Phyllites colubrinoides. Since the excellent synthesis of 

 the late Cretaceous and Tertiary species of Cercidiphyllum by Brown, it has become evident that 

 the specimen is more properly considered within the rather wide range of variability of C. arcticum. 

 It cannot be separated on any rational basis, for example, from the specimens figured by Brown 

 on his plate 53, figure G, nor from those figured by Berry from the Ravenscrag formation ' of 

 Saskatchewan. 



Leaves of this species are exceedingly rare in the late Cretaceous sediments of tho Rocky 

 Mountain region. They are very abundant, on the other hand, in deposits of known Paleocene 

 age, such as the "Fort Union," Hanna, Paskapoo, and Ravenscrag. 



Both Berry and Brown have pointed out the similarity of the leaves of this species to those 

 of Cercidiphyllum japonicum S. & Z. of eastern Asia. 



Occurrence — Locality P3854. 



Colleclion—lJ. C. Mus. Pal., Plesiotype No. 2515. 



' Knowlton. F. H., U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paiier 130, 24, 1922. 



> Ibid., 137, pl. 6, figs. 4. 5. pl. 11. figs. 3-5. 



• Borry. E. W., Canada Geol. Surv. Mem. 182, 34, pl. 6, fig8. 3. 5, 1935 (.Trochodendroides cuneata). 



