52 



SHORTER CONTEIBVTIOXS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1916. 



in the marginal region. Tertiaries immersed 

 in the leaf substance. 



In the modern flora the genus Bumelia em- 

 braces about 20 species of shrubs and mostly 

 small trees, confined to the Western Hemis- 

 phere, where they are distributed from the 

 southern United States through the West In- 

 dies, Mexico, and Central America to Brazil. 

 Some of the species range northward to Vir- 

 ginia and southern Illinois. They inhabit for 

 the most part the strand, sandy soil near the 

 coast, river bottoms, and the borders of swamps. 

 Fossil species of Bumelia are numerous and the 

 genus was probably cosmopolitan during the 

 Tertiary — it was certainly common in the Eu- 

 ropean area. It has been continuously repre- 

 sented in southeastern North America since the 

 Upper Cretaceous. Four lower Eocene species 

 from this area have been described, one of 

 which, Bumelia pscudotenax Berry, from the 

 Wilcox group of northern Mississippi, is not 

 luilike the Alum Bluff species but somewhat 

 smaller and relatively narrower. Other spe- 

 cies are present in the deposits of the Claiborne 

 and Vicksburg groups. 



Compared with existing American species the 

 present form is closer to the temperate than to 

 the tropical species. It is intermediate between 

 Bumelia tenax WiUdenow and B. lanuginosa 

 Persoon and may stand in an ancestral rela- 

 tionship to these modern forms. The former 

 ranges along the coast from Cape Canaveral to 

 North CaroUna and the latter from northern 

 Florida along the Gulf coast and up the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley to southern IlUnois and is abun- 

 dant and of its largest size in the river bottoms 

 of eastern Texas. 



Occurrence: Alum Bluff formation. Alum 

 Bluff, Liberty County, Fla. (collected by E. W. 

 Berry) . 



Collection: United States National Museum. 



Genus SAPOTACITES Ettingshausen. 

 Sapotacites spatulatus Berry, n. sp. 



Plate X, figure 2. 



Leaves of medium size, obovate or spatulate 

 in general outhne, with a broadly rounded 

 apex, from which it narrows gradually with 

 nearly straight lateral margins to the sharply 

 cuneate base. Length about 7 centimeters; 

 maximum width in the upper part of the leaf, 



about 2.75 centimeters. Margins entire. Tex- 

 ture coriaceous. Petiolar portion missing. 

 Midrib stout but more or less immersed. 

 Secondaries obsolete by immersion. Ter- 

 tiaries shown in microscopic preparations to 

 form a very close meshed areolation. 



Sapotacites is a form genus for generically 

 undifferentiated or undeterminable members 

 of the family Sapotacete, and numerous species 

 that range from the Upper Cretaceous through, 

 the Tertiary have been described. It is pos- 

 sible to refer many of these ancient species, 

 such as the numerous forms in the flora of the 

 Wdcox group, to Bumelia, Mimusops, Side- 

 roxylon, Chrysophyllum, and other allied gen- 

 era. The present form is much like a number 

 of existing species of Mimusops as well as some 

 forms of Bumeha. The family is chiefly trop- 

 ical and subtropical. 



No fossil species are especially close to the 

 present one, although it shows considerable 

 resemblance to CTirysopliyUum sagorianum Et- 

 tingshausen,' from the Aquitanian of Sagor, n 

 Carniola. 



Occurrence: Alum Bluff formation. Alum 

 Bluff, Liberty County, Fla. (collected by E. W. 

 Berry). 



Collection: United States National Museum. 



Family EBENACEJE. 



Genus DIOSPYROS Linne 



Diospyros brachysepala Alex. Braun. 



Plate X, figure 3. 



Diospyros brachysepiilii. Alex. Braun, Die Tertiar-Flora 



von Oningen: Neues Jahrb.. 1845, p. 170. 

 Diospyros brachysepala. Heer, Flora tertiaria Helvetise, 



vol. 3, p. 11, pi. 102, figs. 1-14; pi. 153, fig. 39b, 1859. 

 Diospyros brachysepala. Friedrich, Boitrage zur Keniit- 



niss der Tertiarflora der Sachsen, pp. 63, 119, 126, 253, 



255, pi. 6, fig. 1, 1883. 

 Diospyros brachysepala. AVard, Types of the Laramie 



flora: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 37, p. 104, pi. 49, figs. 



1, 2, 1887. 



This early described species has been re- 

 corded from a large number of American and 

 Eurasian locahties ranging in age from basal 

 Eocene to Pliocene. It is improbable that a 

 single species existed for so long a period, and 

 I have therefore reduced the synonymy of 



' Ettingshausen, Constantin, Die fossile Flora von Sagor in Krain, 

 pt. 2, p. 14, pi., 12, flgs. 1&-21. 1877. 



