ART. 24 FOSSIL PLANTS FROM COLOMBIA BERRY 3 



less than 1 to over 2.5 centimeters; lengths of as much as 16 centi- 

 meters are preserved with the margins practically parallel, but in no 

 cases are the tips preserved and these were presumably acuminate. 

 The stems are longitudinally striated. There are several crushed 

 internodes of rhizomes in the collection. In no case are these com- 

 plete. All are flattened but are of considerable consistency; these 

 internodes are about 6 to 7 centimeters in length, and 2.5 to 3.5 

 centimeters in diameter in their present condition; they show no 

 details except the somewhat distorted thin vascular strands of the 

 cortex. Named for the collector Dr. Maurice A. RoUot. 



So far as I know this is the first published record of the occurrence 

 of Chusquea as a fossil, although I have observed similar remains, 

 probably of this genus, at a number of localities in Peru and Bolivia, 

 and they are comparatively common in the tufaceous deposits of late 

 Tertiary to Recent Age which are so widespread in the Andean region. 



The present species occurs in a well-lithified gray shale associated 

 with the coals of Usme and I am informed is the horizon known 

 locally as the Piso Barzalosa. It is overlain by gypsiferous vari- 

 colored shales and underlain by black shales, and is said to be older 

 than the coal-bearing beds of the Sabana of Bogota. The locality 

 is La Virginia on the railroad about 15 kilometers from Girardot, 

 Dept. of Cundinamarca. 



The genus Chusquea has about 50 existing species, ranging from 

 Mexico to southern Chile, and it is especially characteristic of the 

 east Andean Ceja region, denoting an abundant water supply. Its 

 present-day altitudinal limit under the equator is around 11,500 feet. 



Order ARECALES 



Family PALMAE 

 Subfamily Lepidocaryinae 



LEPIDOCARYOPSIS, new genus 



LEPIDOCARYOPSIS ROLLOTI, new species 



Plate 1, Figure 7 



The single incomplete specimen upon which this species is based 

 was sent to me by Dr. Maurice Rollot of Bogota along with other 

 carpological material collected from the so-called Guaduas formation 

 of that region, but I do not know the exact locality where the speci- 

 men was obtained. It is a cast in a fine-grained sandstone matrix 

 and indicates a fruit prolate spheroidal in form, more narrowed toward 

 the base than toward the apex, about 5 centimeters in diameter, 

 covered with what were in life coriaceous scales, arranged in a low 

 spiral. These scales are rhomboidal in shape, about a centimeter in 

 width, bluntly pointed and overlapping (imbricated) in the direction 

 of the base. 



