16 



SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1922. 



Occurrence: Goss pit, half a mile east of 

 Mansfield, De Soto Parish, La.; collected bv 

 O. M. Ball. 



Genus RHAMNITES Fortes. 

 Rhamnites knowltoni Berry, new name. 



Plate XII, figure 7. 



Cornus studeri Lesquereux, U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey 

 Terr. Ann. Kept, for 1871, p. 293, 1872 (not Heer, 

 1859); Tertiary flora, p. 244, pi. 42, figs. 4, 5, 1878. 



Hollick, in Harrisand Yeatch, A preliminary report on 

 the geology of Louisiana, p. 286, pi. 45, fig. 2, 1899. 



Knowlton, U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 163, p. 68, pi. 15, 

 fig. 3, 1900. 



Berry, U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 91, p. 331, pi. 

 68, fig. 3, 1916. 



In the account of the Wilcox flora this species 

 was said to be represented by fragments from 

 a number of localities, the most complete speci- 

 men being the one figured from Coushatta, La. 

 Subsequent collections show that this form is 

 abundant in the Wilcox near Mansfield and con- 

 firm the previous statement that it differs from 

 Heer's Swiss Miocene type and also is not prop- 

 erly referable to the genus Cornus. Although 

 in some of the features it is similar to species 

 that have been referred to Ficus, these features 

 are not like any in existing forms of that genus, 

 where the venation has certain characteristics 

 that are easily recognized. They are, on the 

 other hand, characteristic of certain members 

 of the families Sapindaceae and Rhamnaceae, 

 particularly the latter, and I have therefore 

 transferred the American forms to the genus 

 Rhamnites. 



R. knowltoni may be described as follows: 

 Leaves large, broadly ovate, many of them 

 slightly inequilateral, the tip somewhat nar- 

 rowed and acuminate and the base rounded or 

 very broadly pointed. Margins entire, in some 

 specimens faintly undulate. Texture subcori- 

 aceous. Midrib stout and prominent. Second- 

 aries stout, six to nine pairs, diverge from the 

 midrib at irregular intervals at angles of about 

 45°, camptodrome. Tertiaries thin, closely 

 spaced, percurrent, typically rhamnaceous. 

 Size variable, some leaves being as much as 19 

 centimeters in length and 9.5 centimeters in 

 maximum width, which is in the lower half of 

 the leaf. A large specimen from Mansfield is 

 figured in the present paper. The single Louisi- 

 ana specimen has a length of 16 centimeters 

 and a maximum width, midway between the 

 apox and the base, of 8.75 centimeters. 



Occurrence: Goss pit, half a mile east of 

 Mansfield, De Soto Parish, La.; collected by 

 O. M. Ball. 



Order MALVALES. 



Family MALVACEAE? 



Genus MONOCARPELLITES Perkins. 



[Vermont State Geologist Rept. for 1903-4, p. 180.] 



Monocarpellites perkinsi Berry, n. sp. 



Plate XII, figures 1-6. 



Ligneous single-celled carpels, with numer- 

 ous seeds. General form spheroidal; whether 

 oblate or prolate is uncertain, as the material 

 has suffered much compression. Probably 

 nearly spheroidal in life, with 10 to 12 thin 

 longitudinal ribs. Apex mucronate-tipped. 

 Hiltlm large depressed, about 2 millimeters in 

 diameter. 



This species is not uncommon at the locality 

 cited, but it is impossible to determine the 

 character of the interior. The conclusion that 

 the ribs do not represent keels or sutures of a 

 tardily dehiscent capsule rests upon their 

 somewhat unequal spacing, the lack of any 

 traces of sutures, and the fact that one speci- 

 men has undergone great compression in a 

 vertical plane without developing any indica- 

 tions of a capsular nature. The conclusion 

 that these carpels were many seeded also rests 

 upon the manner in which compression has 

 occurred and the resulting irregularities of sur- 

 face, which differ from what would be shown if 

 one or a few large seeds had been present. 



The genus Monocarpellites, to which the 

 present species is referred, is a form genus es- 

 tablished by Perkins in 1904 and based upon 

 abundant material from the Eocene lignite 

 deposits at Brandon, Vt. Specimens of Mono- 

 carpellites are among the most abundant fossils 

 at Brandon, and Perkins has described 11 dif- 

 ferent species based upon differential features 

 that are more or less well marked but quite 

 obviously not of specific grade. Although the 

 Wilcox Monocarpellites resembles several of 

 these so-called species from the Brandon lig- 

 nite it can not be conclusively identified with 

 any one of them, so that in the present unsatis- 

 factory state of our knowledge of fossil fruits 

 it must necessarily be considered to represent 

 a new species. 



In this connection attention should be called 

 to the genus High-tea, which was described by 



