176 



SHORTER CONTRIBUnONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1921. 



This widespread and characteristic Upper 

 Cretaceous species is found in this country 

 from the base of the Raritan formation of New 

 Jersey upward into the Bhick Creek formation 

 of the Carohnas. Abroad it is common in the 

 Cenomanian and ranges upward into the 

 Turonian. The type locality is in the Ceno- 

 manian of Moravia, but the species has also 

 been recorded from the Atane beds of western 

 Greenland and from the Dakota sandstone of 

 the West. In the Alabama Cretaceous it has 

 been collected only from the lower part of the 

 Tuscali losa formation . 



Several characteristic specimens are present 

 in the collections from Arthurs Bluff, Tex. 

 This species was recorded by Ward from the 

 Cheyenne sandstone at Chatman Creek, Kans., 

 but the material upon which the record was 

 based is referable to the genus Sapindopsis. 



Order TJMBELLALES. 



Family ARALIACEAE. 



Genus ARALIA Llnne. 



Aralia wellingtoniana Lesquereux. 



Plate XXXVII. figiire 3; Plate XXXVIII, figures 3, 4. 



Aralia willingtoniana Lesquereux. U. S. Geol. Survey 



Mon. 17. p. 131, pi. 21, fig. 1 (pi. 22, figs. 2, 3, is not 



this species but Aralia saportiuia Lesquereux), 1891 



[1892]. 

 Newberry, U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 35, p. 114, pi. 26 



fig. 1. 1895 [1896]. 

 Berry, New Jersey Geol. Stu^ey Bull. 3, p. 202, pi 



25, fig. 7, 1911; Torrey Bot. Club Bull., vol. 39, p 



402, 1912. 

 Aralia concinna Newberry, U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 16 



16, p. 114, 1895 [1896]. 

 Aralia n'cUinijIoniimn vaughanii Knowlton, U. S. Geol 



Survey Twenty-first Ann. Rept.. pt. 7, p. 317, 1901 



This hanilsome species is described by 

 Lesquereux as being palmately tlu-ee to five 

 lobed, bvit it certainly seems significant that 

 all the forms from the Raritan formation are 

 three-lobed and that the iive-lobed forms from 

 the Dakota sandstone referred by Lesquereux 

 to this species are indistinguishable from his 

 species Aralia saportana, which occurs at the 

 same horizon and, in ])art at least, at the same 

 locality. 



This is the most abundant form collected at 

 Arthurs Bluff, Tex., there being 15 specimens 

 in the one small collection made by Stanton 

 and Stephenson and as man}' more in the old 



collections made by Hill and Vaughan. These 

 are all trilobate, and the majority have toothed 

 margins and agree exactly with the Raritan 

 leaves of this species and with the trilobate 

 leaves from the Dakota sandstone like the one 

 figured by Lesquereux on his Plate XXI, 

 figure 1. 



In the light of our present knowledge Aralia 

 wellimjtonia may be redescribed in the following 

 terms : 



Leaves variable in size, 10 to 20 centimeters 

 in length by 8 to 15 centimeters in maximum 

 width from tip to tip of the lateral lobes; 

 average size about 15 centimeters in length by 

 11 centimeters in width; coriaceous, palmately 

 deeply trilobate, with a rapidly narrowed and 

 more or less extended decurrent base; lobes 

 long, lanceolate, widest in the middle and 

 narrowing below, somewhat abruptly acumi- 

 nate, the medium slightly the longest, diverg- 

 ing at an angle of about 30°, separated by 

 sinuses extending more than lialfwav to the 

 base, narrowly rounded; margins entire below 

 and for varying distances upward, sometimes 

 tliroughout, generally passing gradually into 

 dentate-serrate teeth, one to each secondary 

 or less, prominent in some specunens, where 

 they are more or less extended and directed 

 upward, separated by wide, shallow sinuses. 

 Primaries stout, suprabasilar, the median 

 slightly larger than the laterals. vSecondaries 

 numerous, thin, regular, subparallel, ascending, 

 as the angle of their divergence from the 

 primaries averages about 33°, but slightly 

 curved in their course, ultimately craspedo- 

 drome in the distal parts of the leaf, where the 

 margin is toothed, and camptodrome in the 

 basal half of the leaf, where the margin is 

 entire. Areolation indistinct, reticulate, of 

 quadragonal or polygonal meshes. The smaller 

 leaves are relatively shorter and broader, 

 with less extended lobes and more open and 

 less deep sinuses. 



The present species was confused by Ward''^ 

 with what was subsequently differentiated 

 as Aralia coltnndalcnsis Berry,*" of the Tus- 

 caloosa formation, which has shorter, more 

 conical lobes, a broadly rounded base, and 

 more crenate marginal teeth. 



■" Ward, L. F., in Smith, E. .\., (ioology of the Coastal Plain of 

 .Vlabama, p. 3-ls, ISM. 



<" Berry, E. W., U. S. Geol. .Survey Prof. Paper U2, p. lus, pi. 26, 

 figs. 1-3, 19W. 



