FLORA OF THE CHEYENNE SANDSTONE OF KANSAS. 



219 



Order THYMELEALES. 



Family LAURACEAE. 



Genus SASSAFRAS Liiine. 



Sassafras mudgii Lesquereux. 



Plato LXI, figure 3. 



Sassafras miidqil Lesquereux, Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 



46, p. 90, ISfiS; U. S. Geol. Survey Terr. Kept., vol. 



6 (Cretaceous floral, p. 78, pi. 14, figs. 3, 4; pi. 30, 



fig. 7, 1874. 

 Ward, U. S. Geol. Survey Nineteenth Ann. Rept., pt. 



2, p. 705, pi. 170, figs. 4, 5; pi. 171, fig. 1, 1899. 

 Berry, Bot. Gaz., vol. 34, p. 437, 1902. 

 ?Kurtz, Mus. La Plata Rev., vol. 10, p. 53, 1902. 



According to Newberry, this is merely a 

 variety of his Sassafras cretaceum, but I fail 

 to see any ground for this association except 

 that it resembles somewhat the narrower-lobed 

 leaves ascribed to that species. It is somewhat 

 intermediate between these forms and the 

 more typical Sassafras acutilobiim but is much 

 more like the modern leaf than either. Les- 

 quereux's figures 3 anil 4 of Plate XIV of the 

 "Cretaceous flora" I consider to represent 

 typical forms of this species. In the lengthen- 

 ing of the terminal lobe it approaches the 

 modern Sassafras; and it shows no venation 

 characters which are unlike the modern leaf, 

 for although no marginal veins are discernible, 

 they might have been present in the specimen 

 illustrated in Lesquereux 's figure .3, as they are 

 in the identical form from the Cheyenne sand- 

 stone figured on the accompanying plate, and 

 both specimens approach Sassafras in the 

 relations of their secondary members in this 

 region. If it is certain that the fruit has been 

 foimd in the same strata, as Lesciuereux ^* 

 asserts, it only serves to substantiate the 

 impression otherwise obtained that they are 

 true Sassafras leaves. The lateral margins of 

 both the base and the lobes are straighter and 

 more ascending than in the existing Sassafras, 

 and the margin shows a tendency to become 

 wavy. Lesquereux 's other figui'ed specimen 

 referred to this species differs in the size and 

 direction of the lateral lobes, in the subbasal 

 primaries, and in the acute tip; the venation 

 also is somewhat dissimilar, the ascemUng 

 margins bulge outward, and the base is not 

 decurrent on the petiole, as it is most markedly 

 in the specimens shown in his figures 3 and 4. 

 It resembles somewhat the forms which New- 



■' Lesquereux, Leo, Flora of the Dakota group, p. 2.TO, is'ji [is92]. 



berry refers to Sassafras acutilohum. Ward's 

 fragmentary leaves from the Black Hills are 

 of doubtful identity. The more perfect speci- 

 men that he originally referred to Lindera 

 venvsta Lesquereux, which it resembles in 

 outline, is a smaller leaf than S. mud/jil. with 

 subbasal primaries, considerable breadth of 

 blade, and reckiced terminal lobe. 



Sassafras mudr/ii was based on material col- 

 lected from the hills along Saline River in cen- 

 tral Kansas. Up to the present time it has 

 never been found elsewhere, except for the 

 above-mentioned doubtful record by Ward 

 from the supposed Dakota sandstone at Evans 

 quarry, in South Dakota, and a still more 

 tloubtful South American record by Kurtz 

 that may well be entirely ignored. It m^iy be 

 that the type was from the Mentor formation 

 of central Kansas rather than from the true 

 Dakota sandstone, as the species has never been 

 found in collections from the Upper Cretaceous 

 of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, but nt) outcrops 

 of the Mentor formation are known as far north 

 as .Saline River. 



The Cheyenne sandstone occurrences are 

 Stokes Hill (2220) and near Medicine Lodge 

 Crfeek, 2 miles west of Belvidere (2224) . 



Order XJMBELLALES. 

 Family ARALIACEAE. 

 Genus ARALIA Linne. 

 Aralia ravniana Heer. 



Plate LVIII; Plate LIX, figure 4. 



Aralia ravniana Heer, Flora fos.silis arctica, vol. 6, Abt. 2, 

 p. 84, pi. 38, figs. 1,2, 1882. 

 Berry, New York Bot. Garden Bull., vol. 3. p. 92. pi. 

 40, fig. 7; pi. .53, fig. 2; pi. 57, fig. I, 1903; Torrey 

 Bot. Club Bull., vol. 31, p. 79. 1904; vol. 37, p. 27, 

 1910; Maryland Geol. Survey, Upper Cretaceous, p. 

 876. pi. 82, fig. 4; pi. 83, figs. 1-4, 1910. 



Araliji groenlandica Heer, idem. pi. 46, fig. 17. 



fStemdia snowii Hollick, New York Acad. Sci. Annals, 

 vol. 11. p. 422, pi. 37, fig. 4, 1898. 



This species was described by Heer from 

 material collected in the Greenland Upper 

 Cretaceous (Atane beds) and has been fomid 

 by me in the Magothy formation of both New 

 Jersey and Maryland. ' The fragments from 

 Marthas Vineyard, Mass., and Tottenville, 

 N. Y., identified as this species by Hollick,^'* 

 are not this species, in my judgment. There is a 



"5 Holliek, Arthur, U. S. Geol. Survey Hon. 50, p. 9!), pi. 37, flgs. 1, 2. 

 1907. 



