TERTIARY PLANTS FROM VENEZUELA BERRY 337 



LOCALITY 7 : BETIJOQUE 



This is in the District of Betijoqiie, State of Triijillo. The exact 

 locality is 100 meters east of the Sabana cle Mendoza Road in the 

 northern outskirts of the town and about 600 meters north 2° east 

 of the main church steeple in Betijoque. The matrix is a soft light- 

 colored clay, and the plants are on the whole well preserved. Nine 

 species collected by Bowen were described from here in the 1921 

 paper, and the present contribution adds about as many more. There 

 has been some difference of opinion regarding the age, but so far 

 as I know it has not appeared in print, and there cannot be the 

 slightest doubt that the plant horizon is lower or middle Miocene 

 in age. 



LOCALITY S : LA SALVADORA 



This locality is along the trail 4 kilometers northwest of La Salva- 

 dora and between 40 and 48 kilometers south of Betijoque in the 

 State of Trujillo. The matrix is a yellowish sandy micaceous clay 

 from which seven species were described in 1921 and is of approxi- 

 mately the same age as the preceding. 



Of these eight localities in Venezuela from which determinable 

 fossil plants of Miocene age have been collected, one is in the State 

 of Falcon, two in Trujillo, and five in Zulia. None has yielded a 

 prolific flora, the number of species varying from 2 at Rio Palo 

 Negro and south of La Victoria to 12 at La Salvadora and 18 at 

 Betijoque. The last is not only the most prolific but also represents 

 the best preservation, and more extensive and careful collecting prob- 

 ably would at least triple the number of forms recognized. 



Because the present collections do not represent a greater lunnber 

 of forms and so can not be considered a reasonable sampling, it is 

 impossible to deduce any reliable ecologic considerations or to insti- 

 tute any adequate comparisons between localities. The only ferns 

 recognized comprise two species, and these both come from Betijoque 

 and have not been collected at any of the other Venezuelan localities, 

 although one of these was first described from the Cauca Valley 

 in Colombia. 



The total number of species from the Miocene of Venezuela re- 

 corded herein is 40, and some of these are based on scanty and frag- 

 mentary material. Twenty-one, or more than half, of these have 

 not been found outside of Venezuela. Of these 21 only the follow- 

 ing are confined to a single locality in Venezuela : 



