K0.2151. FOSSIL PLANTS FROM FLORISSANT— KNOWLTON. 271 



It is with some hesitation that the present form is described as a 

 new genus and species, but fossil flowers are so very rare in American 

 deposits, though, on the whole, this is so well preserved, that it seems 

 worthy of a name. The specimen that was figured and described by 

 Kirchner, and by him referred to with some doubt as a convolvula- 

 ceous flower, undoubtedly has a strong resemblance to the flowers of 

 certam tropical genera of this family, but there is another specimen 

 that was not seen by Kirchner which makes its reference to the Con- 

 volvulaceae now questionable. This latter specimen, it will be noted, 

 has a very slender, dehcate pedicel which, while not exactly excluding 

 it from the Convolvulaceae, seems to make its reference to another 

 family desirable, and this family, it seems to me, is the Solanaceae. 

 The slender bractless pedicel and the nearly circular, slightly five- 

 lobed corolla, with its pecuhar nervation, are strongly suggestive of 

 this family. In size, shape, and nervation, for instance, it is very sug- 

 gestive of certain species of Physalis. That it actually belongs to any 

 hving genus of the Solanaceae is difficult to state with positiveness, 

 and to avoid any unwarranted imphcation of kinship, it has been 

 given a new and noncommittal generic name, though the specific 

 name [Pay satis] is intended to signify its probable relationship with 

 this hving type. 



Since the foregoing was written the specimens here described as 

 Porana similis have been studied, and it is difficult to escape the 

 conviction that there may be more than merely superficial resem- 

 blance between them. The nervation is certainly very similar in 

 these two forms, but otherwise they differ considerably. In Floris- 

 santia the corolla — if it be such — is regularly rotate and shghtly five- 

 lob ed, whereas in Porana similis the whole organism is much larger 

 and has strong, rounded, or obtusely pointed lobes which are not 

 always of the same size. The presence of a slender pedicel in Floris- 

 santia is an argument for its corolloid nature. The nature and possi- 

 ble affinities of this form must be left to the future. 



Famfly ANONACEAE. 



ANONA SPOLIATA? Cockerell. 



Anona spoliata ? Cockerell, Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 26, 1908, p. 542, fig. (in 

 text) 7. 



A single example in the Scudder collection that seems to belong 

 here, though it is a httle smaller and apparently shghtly unequal- 

 sided at base. 



