VII. SABAL RIGIDA; A XKW SPECIES OF PALM FROM 

 THE LARAMIE. 



Bv J. B. Hatchkr. 



Thus far no palms have been reported from the Laramie, tjiough 

 their remains are abundant in some of the earlier Mesozoic strata and 

 they have been found, though less abundantly, in the Green River 

 shales and earlier Tertiary deposits of our Western States. 



During the seasons of 1889 to 1892, while the writer was engaged 

 in bringing together a collection of Horned Dinosaurs ( Ceratopsia) 

 from the Laramie deposits, for the late Professor Marsh, a number of 

 beautifully preserved trunks of palms were secured. Unfortunately no 

 notice of these has ever been published. 



While engaged in making a collection of fossil vertebrates from the 

 same deposits in the Ceratops beds of the Laramie of Converse County, 

 Wyoming, during the season of 1900, the writer was fortunate in secur- 

 ing a portion of the leaf of a large fan-leaf palm. The specimen, No. 

 I, of the Carnegie Museum collection of fossil plants, consists of only a 

 portion of a single leaf. The fragment has an area of about one square 

 foot. It was found in the upper Ceratops beds on the west side of 

 Doegie Creek and about five miles above its mouth, in Converse 

 Co., Wyoming. It was imbedded in a much shattered block of 

 Laramie sandstone and a considerable portion of it had already 

 weathered away when found. The portion preserved is in a splendid 

 state of preservation and a fragment of it is shown here in Fig. i, 

 which is about one-sixth natural size. The leaf was when entire of 

 considerable dimensions, two feet or more in diamete'r. L'nfortunately 

 the base and petiole are wanting. The ribs are well preserved and 

 stand out in relief on the surface of the sandstone, showing that they 

 were sufficiently rigid to retain their normal positions while being im- 

 bedded in the sands by which they were preserved. It is with refer- 

 ence to the rigid nature of the leaf that the specific name has been 

 given. 



The nature of this leaf and of the palm trunks above referred to 

 coming from the same deposits would seem to indicate that Sahal 



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