248 U^'ITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIABY FLORA. 



here. It has not been found until now in the formation of the Upper Lignitic, 

 considered as Miocene; but it has two very fine species, apparently identical 

 with two of our living ones, in the Pliocene of California, an evidence of its 

 general distribution over the whole North American continent before the 

 destructive agency of the Glacial period. As seen from its first representa- 

 tives, it has remarkably preserved the large size and the essential characters 

 of its leaves. 



The seven species of Magnolia now living inhabit mostly the Southern 

 States, three only as far up as Southern New York and Pennsylvania. In 

 California, none has been found until now. 



*) 



JTIa{;uoli:i L.e$leyana, Lesqz. 



Plate XLIV, Figs. 1-a. 



Magnolia Lesleyana, Lesqx., Trans. Am. Phil. Soc, vol. xiii,p. 421, pi. xxi, figs. 1,2; Supplement to Annual 

 Report, 1871, p. 14; Annual Report, 1873, p. 403.— Schp., Pal. V^gdt., iii, p. 74. 



Leaves large, very entire, obovate-spathulate, enlarged above the middle, gradually narrowed to 

 a short thick petiole, more rapidly attenuated upward to an obtuse point; middle nerve thick; lateral 

 veins distant, strong, camptodrome. 



The species prevalent in the lower strata of the Lignitic Eocene, both iu 

 Mississippi and Colorado, is distinctly characterized b}^ the shape and the 

 large size of its leaves, of which I have not figured the largest fragments. 

 Their length without the petiole is from fifteen to twenty centimeters, and 

 the width above the middle from six to nine centimeters. Gradually enlarg- 

 ing upward from the base and in an inside curve to above the middle, they 

 are there rounded and contracted upward to an obtuse acumen (fig. 3). This 

 last figure is copied from a specimen of the Mississippi flora; one of the 

 same character has been found later at Golden ; the leaf of fig. 2 indicates, by 

 the direction of the upper part of the borders, a similar conformation. The 

 midrib is very thick, often transversely striate by decomposition; the lateral 

 nerves, mostly parallel, preserve from the base the same angle of divergence 

 from the midrib, 50°, passing in a curve toward the borders. The details 

 of areolation are not distinct; only a few of the nervilles, in right angle to the 

 nerves and very thin, are distinguishable (fig. 1). The substance is some- 

 what thick, but not coriaceous. 



Habitat. — Fischer's Peak, Raton Mountains, New Mexico (Dr. F. V. 

 Hayden). Golden, Colorado. 



