562 PROCEEDINGS OF TIIE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.59. 



so greatly under cultivation in the American Tropics at the present 

 time. 



The fossil described above is from a clay shale interbedded with 

 sandstone, exposed on a small hill on the' northeastern outskirts of the 

 town of Betijoque. 



Plesiotype.—C&t. No. 36424, U.S.N.M. 



Order ARECALES. 

 Family ARECACEAE. 



Genus SABALITES. 



SABALITES, species. 



Plate 109, fig. 3. 



Fragments of the basal part of a leaf of some species of fan palm, 

 showing neither the size of the leaf or the character of the petiole or 

 rays. The present material is worthless beyond the fact that it 

 indicates the presence of fan palms in this fossil flora. The leaf 

 appears to have been small, but there are no features that serve to 

 suggest its botanical affinity, and it is referred to the form-genus 

 Sabalites as a matter of convenience and without the slightest implica- 

 tion that it may be related to the existing species of Sabal. In this 

 connection attention should be called to similar material described as 

 Palmacites, species, by Engelhardt 13 and coming from the Cauca valley 

 in Colombia. This is identical in appearance with the Venezuelan 

 material, but this similarity is without significance in the case of such 

 fragmentary material as has been collected from both of these regions. 



Although a number of palm leaves from Tertiary horizons have been 

 referred to the form-genus Palmacites, this usage is objectionable, 

 despite the appropriateness of the name for fragments whose exact 

 relations are undeterminable, since Brongniart 14 proposed Palmacites 

 for palm trunks, the type of the genus being his Endogenites echinatus 

 from the middle Eocene of the Paris Basin. 



The present material comes from the clay outcrop at Betijoque. 

 The modern genus Mauritia, with about 10 American species of fan 

 palms, often congregate in modern Venezuelan swamps, and it is 

 possible that the fossil fragment may represent a Tertiary member of 

 this genus. 



Type.— Cat. No. 36425, U.S.N.M. 



u Engelhardt, H., Abh. Senck. Natur. Gesell., vol. 19, p. 40, pi. 4, fig. 8, 1895. 

 M B f ongniart, A., Prodrome, p. 120, 1828. 



