a ee — 
Berry: MESOZOIC FLORA OF THE COASTAL PLAIN 191 
term by Brongniart * should preclude it from Mesozoic termin- 
ology, the term Phragmites is preferable. 
MyRrICALES 
Myrica elegans sp. nov. PLATE II, FIGURES I-4, 6 
Leaves 4—7 cm. long and 1.5—2 cm. wide, broadly lanceolate 
in outline. Like the living species, the margin is variable, ranging 
from forms in whichit is rather angularly crenate with an approach 
to serrate in some of the teeth, through forms in which the crena- 
tions become more and more rounded until the other extreme 
shows relatively broad-bladed leaves with scalloped margins. The 
latter are quite different in appearance from’ the former, but are 
united to them by many intermediate forms of which the more 
pronounced types are figured. Midrib straight, moderately stout, 
petiole, if present, not preserved, secondaries numerous, 9-12 on 
a side, sub-opposite, equidistant, leaving the midrib at a wide 
angle which becomes more acute toward the tip of the leaf, curv- 
ing slightly and running directly to the marginal points. 
This is perhaps the commonest species at Court House Land- 
ing, and is represented by many individuals all more or less imper- 
fect because of the arenaceous nature of the matrix and the 
presence of more or less gypsum. There is no Myrica recorded 
from the Tuscaloosa formation in Alabama. In New Jersey the 
Raritan has five or six species, of which Myrica Newberryana, 
M. raritensis and M. acuta are somewhat similar to the Carolina leaf 
but still entirely distinct, Myrica raritensis Hollick being a des- 
cendant in all probability of Myrica brookensis Font., the single 
species known from the Older Potomac of Virginia. There are 
two species found in the Cretaceous of Staten Island, two in the 
Magothy formation of New Jersey and Maryland, and nine or ten 
in the Dakota group of the west, all very distinct from the leaf in 
hand. 
Myrica occurs earlier and is much more varied in America 
than in Europe, where the maximum development seems to have 
been during the Tertiary, the few Cenomanian and Senonian 
species not showing any similarities to the leaves under consider- 
ation. The Greenland Cretaceous furnishes five species, one of 
which, Myrica praecox Heer, from the Patoot beds of the west 
coast (Senonian ?), resembles Myrica elegans more closely than 
*Mém., Mus. Hist. Nat. 8: 138. 1822. 
