BERRY: MESOZOIC FLORA OF ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN 63 
represented very fragmentary remains of six different species of 
ferns. These are all small and of more or less doubtful botanical 
identity but of importance for purposes of correlation since nearly 
all are found in other areas, especially in Greenland and Europe. 
There are nine species of gymnosperms, but several of these are 
_ of somewhat doubtful age value and traces of plants of this affinity 
are extremely rare in western Tennessee. 
The monocotyledons also number nine species, including a 
fan palm, and a feather palm which is referred to the genus 
Geonomiles and is a type that is prominent in the lower Eocene 
of the Raton Mesa region. Several of the monocots appear to 
represent aquatic or semi-aquatic species. Thus there is a 
well marked Potamogeton and the mudflat type Alismaphyllum. 
In addition the forms named Phyllites hydrilloides and Phyllites 
hydrocharitoides appear to represent aquatics. The former shows 
great resemblance to Hydrilla of the family Hydrocharitaceae, a 
genus supposed to be monotypic in the existing flora and widely 
distributed throughout the Old World. The second appears to 
represent an Upper Cretaceous type of this same family com- 
parable in its habit with the existing genus Vallisneria. 
The dicotyledons of the Ripley flora number one hundred 
eight of which ninety-seven belong to the more primitive or chori- 
petalous series and only eleven represent the more specialized 
Gamopetalae. Among the Choripetalae the anemophilous forms, 
regarded as primitive by some botanists and reduced by others, 
number nineteen. The largest alliance is the Rosales with fourteen 
species, all of which belong to the Leguminosae. Since these 
represent the three families Mimosaceae, Caesalpiniaceae and 
Papilionaceae no one is more extensive than another or compares 
in size with some of the other families present at this time. 
The second largest family is the Lauraceae with twelve species, 
but my recognition of minute differences in the genera Cinnamo- 
mum and Laurus tends to overemphasize their relative importance 
in the Ripley flora. The family Myricaceae is. third in size with 
eleven species, all of which belong to the genus Myrica, which 
shows an extraordinary differentiation at this time. The next 
most abundantly represented family is the Moraceae with ten 
species, nine of which are referred to Ficus and the tenth to a 
