4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 75 



The species is named for the collector. There can be no doubt but 

 that the fossil represents a nut of some Tertiary palm belonging to 

 the subfamily Lepidocaryinae, but since the genus can not be ascer- 

 tained I have coined the generic term Lepidocaryopsis for its reception. 

 The reasons for uncertainty regarding the precise generic affinity of 

 the fossil are the incomplete character of the type, the lack of generic 

 differences in the fruits of the existing genera and the lack of sufficient 

 recent comparative material. It may well be that the fossil belongs 

 to one or the other of the three American tropical genera Mauritia, 

 Lepidocaryum, and EapMa; in fact I regard this as very probable. 



The genus Mauritia is confined to tropical South America with 

 about 10 existing species; the genus Lepidocaryum has 5 or 6 Amazo- 

 nian species and the genus Raphia has about 6 existing species ranging 

 from Central America to Brazil and also represented in Africa. From 

 the point of view of the existing distribution Raphia should be the 

 oldest of the three and the fossil may well represent that genus, with 

 which it agrees in so far as its features can be made out. 



Order URTICALES 



Family MORACEAE 



Genus COUSSAPOA Aublet 



COUSSAPOA AMPLA, new species 



Plate 3 



Leaves of large size, widest below the middle, with a bluntly pointed 

 tip and a broadly truncated and slightly decurrent base. Margins 

 entire. Texture coriaceous. Length about 19 centimeters. Maxi- 

 mum width about 15.5 centimeters. Petiole short and stout; in the 

 single specimen in which this part is preserved it is only about 1 

 centimeter in length. Midvein exceedingly stout and prominent. 

 Secondaries numerous, stout, and prominent; they diverge from the 

 midvein at angles around 45°, pursue rather straight subparallel 

 courses, and are abruptly camptodrome close to the margins. The 

 secondaries are rather evenly spaced, except at the base, where two 

 or three pairs are convergent near the top of the petiole. The 

 imperfection of the material in the marginal region renders it impossi- 

 ble to state whether the secondaries send off lateral branches or not. 

 Tertiaries faint, numerous, and percurrent. Areolation obsolete. 



This fine species is unfortunately represented by an inadequate 

 amount of broken material. It was collected by Maurice A. Rollot 

 from the outcrop of coal-bearing Tertiary at the Falls of Tequendama^ 

 west of Bogota, and is probably Oligocene in age. If this is the 

 correct age it is the oldest as well as one of the largest fossil species 

 of Coussapoa known. It differs sufficiently from the known species 

 to be readily recognizable, and hence obviates the necessity of con- 

 trasting the differences in the present connection. Several fossil 



