No. 2367. FOSSIL PLANTS FROM COSTA RICA— BERRY. 175 



Tertiaries thin, mostly percurrent. Areolation of small, isodiametric 

 polygonal meshes well marked on the under side of the leaf. 



This rather large leaf is unfortunately represented by fragmentary 

 material just as it was to the southward in the Canal Zone. In some 

 respects its characters suggest a broad Ficus, but it seems clearly 

 identical with the species described by Engelhardt in 1895 from the 

 Tertiary of Ecuador. I have, however, queried the determination 

 because of the broken character of the material, although it is some- 

 what more complete than that from Panama and includes the terminal 

 half of a leaf. 



This species was described from the coal-bearing series of the Loja 

 basin in the southern Ecuadorian Andes and was subsequently pro- 

 visionally identified from the Caimito formation of Panama. 



The genus Hieronymia comprises about a dozen existing species 

 of shrubs and trees confined to tropical America and rather widely 

 distributed from Mexico to Brazil as well as in the West Indies and 

 is still represented in Central America. 



Order MALVALES. 

 Family STERCULIACEAE. 



Genus BUTTNERIA Linnaeus. 



BtiTTNERIA CINNAMOMIFOLIA Engelhardt (?). 



Bilttneria cinnamomifolia Engelhardt, Abh. Senck. Naturf. Gesell.. vol. 19, 

 p. 32, pi. 7, fig. 9, 1895. 



Description. — Leaves ovate in general outline, widest below the 

 middle and with an acute apex and base, the latter slightly wider than 

 the former. Margins entire, evenly rounded. Length, about 8.25 

 cm. Maximum width, about 4 cm. Petiole stout, about 1.5 cm. in 

 length. Midrib stout, prominent. Basal pair of secondaries trans- 

 formed into pseudoprimaries which diverge from the midrib at an 

 acute angle at the top of the petiole and curve upward subparallel 

 with the lateral margins, joining the normal secondaries about two- 

 thirds of the distance to the apex of the leaf. Normal secondaries 

 3 pairs in the upper third of the leaf; they diverge from the midrib 

 at a wide angle and are abruptly camptodrome. Tertiaries per- 

 current within and camptodrome outside the area inclosed by the 

 basal secondaries. Areolation prevailingly quadrangular. 



This species was described from the Tertiary (probably Miocene) 

 of Santa Ana, Colombia, and compared with the existing Buettneria 

 eUiptica Pohl, B. affinis Pohl, and B. laevigata Schott. Fragments 

 showing the characteristic areolation are contained in the present 

 collection, but as no reasonably complete specimens have been found 

 the identification is queried. 



The genus contains about three score existing species of herbaceous 

 or shrubby, mostly climbing, plants largely confined to tropical 

 America but found also in Madagascar, the southeastern Asiatic 

 region, and Malayanasia. 



