No. 238S. TERTIARY FOSSIL PLANTS FROM VENEZUELA— BERRY. 555 



The only fossil plant that I find recorded from Venezuela is a 

 Weichselia described by Schlagintweit 5 from Santa Maria and of 

 Lower Cretaceous age, although Karsten 8 mentions ferns, reeds and 

 dicotyledonous leaves from Santa Maria and Nariqual in association 

 with the coal. No specimens appear to be in the Berlin or Rostock 

 collections to verify this statement except the aforementioned fern, 

 which is a Lower Cretaceous form, widely distributed throughout 

 the Peruvian Andes and Coastal region, and also known from the 

 European Wealden. 



The present report enumerates but 16 species, all but two of which 

 are new to science. The following nine forms are from Betijoque: 



Blechnum betijoquensis Berry. 



Sdbalites, species. 



Heliconia elegans (Engelhardt) Berry. 



Coussapoa villosoides Berry. 



Ficus betijoquensis Berry. 



Anona guppyi Berry. 



Trigonia varians Engelhardt. 



Simaruba miocenica Berry. 



Khizopliora boweni Berry. 



The locality near La Salvadora furnished the following seven 

 species: 



Leguminosites venezuelensis Berry. 



Leguminosites entadaformis Berry. 



Sophora salvadorana Berry. 



Antholithus venezuelensis Berry. 



Apocynophyllum salvadorensis Berry. 



Burserites venezuelana Berry. 



Trigonia varians Engelhardt. 



The locality at Mesa Pablo yielded the single species, Entada 

 boweni Berry, which is stratigraphically below the two preceding 

 main plant horizons. 



As will be observed there is only a single form common to the 

 two principal localities — namely, Trigonia varians Engelhardt, but 

 this, it seems to be, is sufficient to indicate the practical synchroneity 

 of these two localities, which is also borne out by Mr. Bowen's field 

 observations. Hence it will be expedient to consider the flora as a 

 whole in discussing the ecology and age which it indicates. 



The 16 identified species represent 15 genera, 13 families, and 10 

 orders. They comprise a fern, 2 monocotyledons, and 13 dicotyle- 

 dons. They include the abundant remains of a species of Blechnum, 

 a genus of ferns with a large number of existing tropical species, 

 well represented in northern South America. The monocotyledons 



6 Schlagintweit, O., Centralblatt Mln. Geol. u Paliiont., New. 19 and 20, pp. 315-319. 1919. 

 « Karsten, H., Zeits. Deutsch. Geol. Oesell., vol. 2, p. 354, 1830. 



