220 



SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL, GEOLOGY, 1S)21. 



great display of Aralia-\ike forms in the middle 

 Cretaceous both of this country and of Europe, 

 and these forms are especially abundant in 

 the Dakota sandstone of the West. Compari- 

 sons with existing plants are not so satisfactory, 

 although many tropical Araliaceae show sug- 

 gestive resemblance. The Moraceae in the 

 genus Artocarpus and its allies also show many 

 similar features. 



This most striking species of Aralia, because 

 of its large size, has always been found in a 

 fragmentary condition. Specimens showing all 

 parts of the leaf have now been collected both 

 from Maryland and from Kansas, and these 

 Conclusively confirm the restoration of this leaf 

 made bj^ me in 1903. They also confirm the 

 supposition based on the venation of the New 

 Jersey material, that instead of a broadly ovate 

 median lobe, as Heer supposed, this middle 

 lobe was sublobate by the greater or less de- 

 velopment of a lateral lobe on each side, as 

 shown in the accompanying illustrations. The 

 species may be more fully defmed in the light 

 of all the material as follows: Leaves large, 

 ranging from 16 to 21 centimeters in length and 

 from 19 to 23 centimeters in maximum width, 

 orbicular in general outline, deeply pinnate- 

 lobate. Apex of the terminal and lateral lobes 

 bluntly pointed. Base broadly cuneate. Mar- 

 gins entire. Texture subcoriaceous. Lobes 

 usually seven, separated by relatively narrow 

 ultimately- rounded sinuses, comprising an 

 ovate medium terminal lobe and two main 

 lateral lobes on each side, the lower pair being 

 more or less divided. In the Maryland mate- 

 rial the auxiliary lobe on the lower side of each 

 main lateral lobe is feebly developed. In the 

 Greenland material it is at least half as large as 

 the main lobe, and the separating sinus extends 

 halfway to the base. Petiole stout, its full 

 length unknown. Midrib very stout and prom- 

 inent, straight. Lateral primaries two on each 

 side, stout and prominent, the lower pair sub- 

 opposite and suprabasilar, the upper pair in 

 some specimens subopposite, more commonly 

 separated by a wide interval. The lower 

 primary may fork a short distance above its 

 base, as it does in the Greenland material at an 

 interval of only about 1 centimeter, or this 

 fork may be at least 4 centimeters above the 

 base, as in the Maryland material, the distance 

 depending on the extent to which the auxiliary 

 lobe is developed. The angle of divergence of 



the primaries from the midrib is about 40° but 

 varies from specimen to specimen; the basal 

 pair is in general somewhat more divergent than 

 the upper pair. The secondary and tertiary 

 venation is usually obsolete. Some specimens 

 show a few thin remote secondaries diverging 

 from the primaries at angles of about 45° and 

 sweeping upward in ascending camptodrome 

 curves. 



The Cheyenne sandstone material is not 

 abundant. It comes from the left bank of the 

 middle branch of Champion (Wildcat) Draw, 

 half a mile south of Belvidere (2229) and the 

 right bank of the same branch (2231). 



Aralia newberryi Berry. 



Aralia newberryi Berry, Torrey Bot. Club Bull., vol. 34, p. 



201, pi. 1.5, fig. 1, 1907; New Jersey Geol. Survey 



Bull. 3, p. 197, 1911. 

 Aralia palmata Newberry, Flora of the Amboy clays, p. 



117, pi. 39, figs. 6, 7; pi. 40, fig. 3, 1896 (not Lamarck). 

 Berry, New York Bot. Garden Bull., vol. 3, p. 93, pi. 



44, 1903; Torrey Bot. Club Bull., vol. 31, p. 79, pi. 



4, fig. 12, 1904. 

 Aralia rotundiloha Hollick, New York Acad. Sci. Annals, 



vol. 11, p. 421, pi. 38, fig. 2, 1898. 

 Aralia polymorpha Newberry, Flora of the Amboy clays, 



p. 118, pi. 39, figs. l-.j, 1896. 

 Aralia sp. Hollick, New York State Mus. Ann. Rept., vol. 



55, p. 155, 1903. 



Leaves very variable in size and outline, 

 palmately three to five lobed. Lobes conical, 

 obtusely rounded. Sinuses open, shallow, 

 rounded. Margins entire, somewhat undulate 

 basally. Petiole long and stout. Midrib stout, 

 more or less curved or flexuous. Primaries 

 three to five, from the base, prominent, run- 

 ning to the tips of the lobes. Secondaries very 

 slender, camptodrome. The middle lobe is 

 usually longest and broadest, and the basal 

 lateral lobes may be reduced to subordinate 

 and but slightly marked parts of the main lat- 

 eral Igbes. 



The relative development of the apical or 

 basal lobes and the depth of the intervening 

 sinuses greatly alter the appearance of these 

 leaves. Some are symmetrical and others de- 

 cidedly unsymmetrical ; some are preeminently 

 three lobed and sublobate and others are five 

 lobed with additional incipient lobes. The 

 variations are almost exactly comparable with 

 the similar variations in the leaves of the mod- 

 ern Sassafras, Stercnlia, and Araliaceae. 



There seems to be no basis for maintaining 

 the distinctions between the forms united in 



