No. 2388. TERTIARY FOSSIL PLANTS FROM VENEZUELA— BERRY. 565 



a slightly different angle; and in the fossil between the lowest branch 

 from the basal secondary that follows the basal leaf margin and the 

 next normal branch above, there are three or four straight cross 

 veins cutting diagonally across the normally oriented percurrent 

 tertiaries. 



This striking new species, which comes from Betijoquc, is re- 

 presented solely by fragments, which fortunately, however, include 

 the central basal portion and several other parts of the lamina. The 

 leaf was recognized as a member of the Moraceae by its venation, 

 but no attempt was made to identify it until after the restoration 

 shown in text figure 2 had been reconstructed. I mention this 

 in order to show that its almost exact agreement with the leaves of 

 modern species of Coussapoa did not have even a subjective influence 

 in the restoration, which was based entirely upon the material 

 studied. 



Subsequently the very great similarity of the fossil to a recent leaf 

 from the American tropics figured by Ettingshausen as an unnamed 

 species of Artocarpus was noted. 15 This led to an examination of 

 the Artocarpus material in the United States National Herbarium. 

 Some of the Old World species of Artocarpus, as, for example, 

 Artocarpus ovatifolia of the Philippines or Artocarpus chaplaslia of 

 the Indian region have somewhat similar entire leaves, but the 

 resemblance is not especially close. Material of all of the existing 

 genera of the Artocarpoideae was next examined, and although 

 certain general similarities were naturally to be noted, especially in 

 the case of Inophloeum (Oimedia) armatum (Miquel) Pittier, it was 

 seen that the fossil did not belong to this subfamily. 



Subsequently the search was continued to the remaining genera of 

 the Moraceae, and this resulted in the conclusive determination of 

 the fossil as a species of Coussapoa. The genus has not heretofore 

 been certainly found fossil. In the existing flora it includes about 

 15 species of shrubs and trees with the characteristic areolation shown 

 in text figure 2, but varying in the degree of divergence of the 

 secondaries, and, in some forms, this results in a basal primary on 

 either side of the midrib instead of a strictly pinnate arrangement 

 of the secondaries. 



A species of the tripalmate venation type, as yet undescribed, is 

 exceedingly abundant in the Pliocene of eastern Bolivia. Engel- 

 hard t 16 in 1891 referred a form from the lower Miocene of Coronel, 

 Chile, to the genus Coussapoa, but his material was very inconclu- 

 sive, and scarcely warrants the conclusion that this genus was a mem- 

 ber of the south Ghilean Miocene flora, at least not unless more 



* Ettingshausen, C, Blattskelet. Dikot., p. 33, pi. 6, fig. 6, 1861. 



le Engelhardt, H., Abh. Senck. Naturf. Gesell., vol. 16, p. 649. pi, 3, fig. 2, 1891. 



