574 PROCEEDINGS OF TEE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.59. 



largest, and the distal one is considerably smaller. On the whole 

 the material is more satisfactory than is usually the case. 



Holotype.— Cat. No. 36439, U.S.N.M. 



The Simarubaceae is a mostly tropical family of shrubs and trees, 

 with persistent alternate exstipulate leaves made up of small coriace- 

 ous leaflets, and with drupaceous fruits. The genus Simaruba has 

 about a half dozen existing species, all trees, which are confined to the 

 American tropics, where they range from the coasts of southern 

 peninsular Florida to the middle Amazon basin. The present fossil 

 species is practically identical with the existing Simaruba officinalis 

 Macfarlane of the Antilles and Caribbean coastal regions. If the 

 present fossil were not indicative of a pinnate compound leaf, I would 

 be disposed to consider it as representing a small leaf of the sapota- 

 ceous genus Chrysopliyllum, which a single leaflet greatly resembles. 



The only other fossil species known to me is Simaruba eocenica 

 Berry, 23 from the lower Eocene of the Mississippi embayment de- 

 posits in western Tennessee, which resembles the existing Simaruba 

 glauca De Candolle. 



Family BURSERACEAE. 



Genus BURSERITES Berry. 



BURSERITES VENEZUELANA, new species. 



Plate 107, fig. 7. 



Lea\es pinnate. Leaflets small, petiolulate, inequilateral-ovate in 

 form; with acuminate tips and broadly cuneate bases. Length about 

 4.7 cm. Maximum width, midway between the apex and the base, 

 about 2.25 cm., of which about two-thirds is on one side of the midrib. 

 Margins entire, somewhat undulate. Texture subcoriaceous. Petio- 

 lule enlarged, about 4 mm. in length. Midrib stout, prominent, 

 curved. Secondaries stout, regularly spaced, subparallel; about 

 eight pairs diverge from the midrib at angles of from 40 to 65 degrees, 

 curve regularly, and are camptodrome in the marginal region. Ter- 

 tiaries thin, mostly obsolete; a few percurrent nervilles can be made 

 out. 



The present species may be compared with various existing species 

 of the genus Bursera Jacquin and Protium Burmeister. Except that 

 the leaflets are about twice as large they are very similar to those of 

 the existing West Indian Birch or Gumbo Limbo. Among the 16 

 genera of the family, Bursera is the only one that reaches the United 

 States, and Bursera simaruba Sargent is a large tree ranging from 

 southern Florida throughout the West Indies and Central America to 

 Colombia and Venezuela. The genus contains about 40 existing 



** Berry, E. W., U. S. Geological Survey Prof. Paper 91, p. 252, pi. 54, fig. 7, 1910. 



