146 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
heretofore described. As shown in the figure, it is represented by a 
globular head of fruit having a total diameter of 12 mm. In detail, the 
head shows on one side the remnant of a stem, and otherwise is composed 
of a number (11) of fruit bodies, each of which shows an obvious outer 
sac or investment as a perigynium. These structures are rather narrowly 
ovate, beakless, but acute, or even somewhat acuminate and conspicuously 
two-nerved. Towards the centre there is a darker zone, in which the 
details are not clearly recognizable, but it is of such a nature as to suggest 
the presence of fruits internal to the perigynia. It is possible, also, that 
this appearance is in part due to the presence of floral scales. This zone 
merges at the centre into a darker region, which at once suggests a 
central axis or receptacle, an idea which gains force when it is found 
that the perigynia, with their inclosed fruits, clearly terminate at this 
zone. 
From these details it would seem clear that we have here a Cypera- 
ceous fruit of the genus Carex, which finds its modern representatives 
among those of the section Physocarpæ, and on looking over a number 
of herbarium specimens of this group, I find it not uncommonly happens 
that in pressing, the shorter, and, therefore, more glokose, Leads as: 1 
an appearance closely similar to that of the fossil. i 
None of the figures of fossil Carices, so far as I can ascertain, show 
any fruit at all similar to the one under consideration, and it would thus 
appear necessary to provide a provisional name, for which I would suggest 
Carex Burrardiana, the description reading as follows : 
CAREX BURRARDIANA, n. sp. 
Heads globose, 12 mm. broad; perigynia narrowly ovate, two- 
nerved, upwards of 2°25x6 mm., beakless ; the apex acute or somewhat 
acuminate. Associated with finely and many-nerved leaves about 1 em. 
broad. 
POPULUS BALSAMINOIDES, (roeppert. 
(Figs. 8, 9.) 
Goeppert, Flora von Schloss; Heer, Flora Helvetieæ; Flora Alaskana, p. 26, pl. ii. ; 
Lesquereux, U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. viii. 
I refer the leaves figured to this species, though with some hesitation. 
[ have, however, no doubt that they are at least identical with some of 
those referred to this species by Lesquereux. They resemble Heer’s 
figures in form and venation, but differ in wanting the serration on the 
edges, or in having it very imperfect. Lesquereux’s specimens were from 
Corral Hollow, California, and the Bad Lands of Dakota. Var. latiloba 
is credited to the Oligocene of Florissant. 
The localities quoted above, if all the leaves referred to belong to one 
w 
