500 



The JOIRXAL of HliRIiDITV 



the American Terliar>' may not remain 

 unknown until m\' mono«,'raphic studies 

 of our southern Tertiar\- floras are inib- 

 lished. which will be a number of years 

 hence, I am prompted to ijviblish the 

 present brief note. 



THE FOSSIL FRUIT. 



"In the course of my studies for the 

 U. S. (ieoloKncal Survey and under the 

 sujx'rvision of Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan, 

 I ha\-e had the j^ood fortune to recei\'e 

 collections of fossil plants from eastern 

 Texas made tnider the direction of the 

 veteran geologist, E. T. Dumble, now 

 associated with the Southern Pacific 

 Company. The material on which the 

 following note is based was collected 

 bv Chas. Laurence Baker in Trinity 

 countv, Texas, and while not abundant 

 contains both large and small seeds and 

 a cast of the entire fruit of a new species 

 of Phoenix-like palm which ma\' with 

 projjricty be referred to Brongniart's 

 genus Phoenicites. I propose to call this 

 species Phoenicites occidentalis. It may 

 be described as follows: Fruit, as pre- 

 served in a coarse gray sandstone, an 

 oblate spheroid about 4 cm. in length 

 bv 1.5 cm. in breadth. The surface is 

 longitudinally wrinkled, due possibly to 

 dessication before ]jreservation, which 

 may also make the dimensions as gi\'en 

 under what they were in life. The flesh 

 was relatively thin compared with the 

 cultivated date and must have been of 

 consideral)le consistency and fibrous 

 rather than of the soft and almost 

 fluid character of some of the modern 

 varieties of the latter. The seed was 

 relatively large — in the above-mentioned 

 sjjccimen it is rounded at both ends, 

 about 3 cm. in length, nearly circular in 

 transverse section and about 1 cm. in 

 ditmieter. A smaller s])ccimen shows a 

 length of about 2.5 cm. and a diameter 

 of <S mm. The larger of these seeds 

 shows the central hilum, the deep longi- 

 tu<linal sinus on the o])iK>site side, the 

 transverse lamellated structure exactly 

 comjjarable to that of a modem date 

 seed and the finely corrugated surface 

 coat identical with that of a dried seed 

 of a modern date. The smaller sjiecimen, 

 while not so perfect, shows the general 

 fomi and sinus and the lamellated 



structure. There can be no doubt that 

 these remains are those of a Phoenix- 

 like fruit and it is confidently expected 

 that the foliage will eventually be dis- 

 covered, in fact some of the fragments 

 of ])alm-rays found at this and other 

 horizons in our southern Tertiarv may 

 represent this foliage. Petrified wood of 

 several species of palms is exceedingly 

 abundant in these beds, and while the 

 study of ])alm woods has not progressed 

 to a point where one can speak with 

 certaintN' of the generic relations of the 

 ]jetrified woods, it is significant that 

 wood of several different species occurs 

 at this horizon. 



FOSSILS FROM EUROPE. 



"While the geologic record is con- 

 fessedly incom]jlctc, a number of fossil 

 species of Phoenix-like forms have been 

 described, in fact there are more fossil 

 than recent species. These are usually 

 referred to the genus Phoenicites of 

 Brongniart as in the present case, al- 

 though some students refer them directly 

 to the genus Phoenix of Linne. The 

 previous fossil occurrences are all Eu- 

 ro]3ean and are based on leaves and 

 inflorescence. In 1886 Conwentz de- 

 scribed a flower ])rescrved in ])crfection 

 in the Baltic amber and the staminate 

 inflorescence of another species is asso- 

 ciated with splendid leaves in the Eocene 

 of the Paris basin. The oldest known 

 comes from the u])i)er or middle Eocene 

 of the Paris basin, while in the succeed- 

 ing Dligocene period the remains of date 

 ])alms are abundant in Germany, Bo- 

 hemia, and especially in northern Italy. 

 They are present in the early Miocene 

 of France, Switzerland and Croatia. A 

 species is recorded from the west coast 

 of the Adriatic in Pliocene times and the 

 ])resencc of a well-marked form which 

 Drude calls Phoenix dactylijera fossilis, 

 since it is so much like the existing date, 

 is found in the Pleistocene dejjosits of 

 the volcanic island of Santorin in the 

 Aegean Sea. The latter occurrence in- 

 dicates that the date palm was endemic 

 in at least a part of southern Europe 

 until comparatively recent geologic 

 times. 



" A consideration of the ecology of the 

 date and of other existing s]x*cies of 



