A new American fossil hepatic 
MARSHALL A. HOWE AND ARTHUR HOLLICK 
(WITH ONE TEXT FIGURE) 
Fossil Hepaticae are among the rarest of known paleobot- 
anical remains. The total number of described species is less 
than twenty. Of these more than half are identifiable as living 
species of Jungermanniaceae, all but one of which are represented 
merely by fragments enclosed in amber of recent geologic age, 
found in the Old World. The remainder probably all belong in 
the Marchantiaceae. 
Three species only have been heretofore recorded from 
America,* all of which are referable, either definitely or provis- 
ionally, to the latter family. It should be remarked, however, 
that the identity, as well as the botanical relationship of the 
species last cited, in our footnote, is questioned by Fontaine, who 
says (1. c., p. 54): “It is similar to that of a Brachyphyllum and 
the plant may be really a twig of that conifer.’’ Incidently it may 
also be remarked that this is the only species recorded for any 
geological horizon older than Tertiary, and that the type of the 
species, from the Jurassic of England, was originally described 
as an alga under the name Fucoides erectus Bean.} 
Several years ago a collection of fossil plant remains from 
Florissant, Colorado, was sent by Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell to the 
was what appeared to be a fragment of a bryophyte; but it was 
so small and imperfectly defined that it was not identified, 
even as to its probable class relationship, until an enlarged pho- 
tograph (Fic .1) was made. The specimen evidently represents a 
*(a) Preissites Wardii Knowlton, Bull. Torrey Club 21: 458. pl. 279. 1894. 
Eocene (Fort Union formation), Burn’s Ranch, thirty: miles from Glendive, 
Montana. 
(b) Marchantia Pealet Knowlton, Proc. U. S. Nat. ar 35: 157. pl. 25, 
1908. Eocene (Lance formation), Custer County, Monta 
(c) ‘‘Marchantites erectus (Bean) Seward?’’, fide Sicteive in Ward, 
Monog. U. S. Geol. Survey 48:53. pl. 6, f. 1, 2. 1905. Jurassic, Douglas 
County, oe 
enue Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. pri 90: 8r. pl. 71, f. 3a, 3b 
ea ien numbered 2a, 2b on the plate). 18 
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