I40 THE RARITAN FLORA. 



Family LAURACE^. 



Genus SASSAFRAS Nees. 

 (Handb. Bot., vol. ii, 1831, p. 418.) 



Sassafras acutilobum Lesq. • 



Plate XVIII, Fig. 2. 



Sassafras acutilobum Lesq., Cret. Fl., 79, pi. 14, f. i, 2, 1874; 



Cret. and Tert. Fl., 56, pi. 5, f. i, 5, 1883 ; Fl. Dakota 



Group, 100, 1892. 

 Hollick, Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., vol. 12 : 236, pi. 1, f. i, 



1893; U. S. Geol. Surv. Mon. 50:77, pi. 30, f. 8, p, 



1907. 

 Newb., Fl. Amboy Clays, 87, pi. 25, f. i-io; pi. 26, f. 2-6, 



1896. 

 Kurtz, Revista Mus. La Plata, vol. 10: 53, 1902. 

 Berry, Bot. Gazette, vol. 34:438, 1902; Bull. N. Y. Bot. 



Garden, vol. 3:81, pi. ^5, /. i, 2, 1903; Bull. Torrey 



Club, vol. 31 : pi. I, f. 6, 1904; Ann. Rept. State Geol. 



(N. J.) for 1905, 139: />/. 22, f. 4, 5, 1906. 



Description. — Trilobate leaves, variable in size and outline. 

 Length 2.5 cm. (in the young leaves which are preserved at the 

 Woodbridge locality) up to 14 cm., averaging 10 cm. tO' 12 cm. 

 Width from the tips of the lateral lobes likewise ranging from i 

 cm. to 15 cm. averaging about 10 cm. Lobes mostly conical and 

 acute, the middle being usually slightly the broadest and longest. 

 Lateral lobes directed more or less laterally. Base decurrent. 

 The sinuses between the lobes are usually open and rounded, 

 the margins forming an angle of approximately 90°. There 

 is considerable variation, however, in this respect, some of 

 the leaves having comparatively narrow sinuses with the lobes 

 directed upward, as in Sassafras progentor Hollick, while others 

 at the opposite extreme of the series, have extremely shallow 

 sinuses, so shallow that the leaf has the appearance of a tri- 

 angularly pointed, entire leaf. The lateral primaries may branch 



