FLORA or THE CHEYENNE SANDSTONE OF KANSAS. 



221 



the foregoing s3Tionymy. The Cheyenne sand- 

 stone material is more hke the irregiiLir A. 

 poh/morpha than the more symmetrical A. 

 palmata of Newberry's original material. 



The species is common in the Raritan forma- 

 tion of New Jersey and survives in the over- 

 lying Magothy formation. In the Cheyenne 

 sandstone it is represented by three specimens 

 obtained near Medicine Lodge Creek, 2 miles 

 west of Belvidere (2224). 



Genus ARALIOPSOIDES Berry. 

 Araliopsoides cretacea (Newberry) Berry. 



Plate LXI, figure 2. 



Araliopsoides cretacea (Newberry) Berry, Maryland Geol. 



Survey, Upper Cretaceous, p. 879, pi. 74, fig. 3; pi. 



84, figs. 1, 2; pi. 8.5, figs. 1-5; pi. 88, figs. 1-3, 1916; 



Torrey Bot. Club Bull., vol. 38, p. 413, 1911. 

 Sassafras (Araliopsis) cretaceum Newberry, New York Lye. 



Nat. Hist. Annals, vol. 9, p. 14, 1868. 

 [Lesquereux], U. S. (5eol. and Geog. Survey Terr., 



Illuatrations of Cretaceous and Tertiary plants, pi. 



6, figs. 1^; U. S. Geol. Survey Terr. Rept., vol. 6 



(Cretaceous flora), p. 80, pi. 11, figs. 1, 2; pi. 12, fig, 



2, 1874; U. S. Geol. Survey Men. 17, p. 102, 1892. 

 Newberry, U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 35, p. 98, pi. 6, 



figs. 1^; pi. 7, figs. 1-3; pi. 8, figs. 1, 2, 1898. 

 ?Hollick, U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 50, p. 77, pi, 30, 



fig. 10. 1906. 

 Penhallow, Roy. Soc. Canada Trans., 3d ser., vol. 1, 



sec, 4, p. 310, 1907. 

 Berry, Torrey Bot. Club Bull., vol. 37, p. 22, 1910. 



Leaves petiolate, decurrent at base, very smooth above, 

 strongly nerved below, three lobed ; lobes entire and aeute. 

 The ner\'atiou is all strongly defined; the central nerve 

 straight or nearly so; the lateral primary nerA'e springing 

 from it at an angle of 30°; secondary nerves regularly 

 arched till they approach the margin of the lobes, when 

 they are abruptly curved-and run together. From these 

 the tertiary nerves are given off at a right angle, and from 

 these the quaternary nerves spring at a similar angle, 

 together forming a network of whirh the areoles are sub- 

 quadrate. — Newberry, 1868. 



Newberry includes under Sassafras a-etacetim 

 the various forms described by Lesquereux as 

 S. mudgii, S. subintegrifolium, S. liifec/rifolium, 

 S. obtiisum, S. cretaceum dentatum, S. cretaceum 

 ohtusum, S. acutilohum, Cissites Jiarl'ianus, and 

 C. salisbvriaefoliys. Although this list shows 

 the undoubted composite nature of S. cretaceum, 

 it also shows that the extremes of leaf form 

 above mentioned are so closely connected with 

 the more typical leaf by a series of interme- 

 diate forms that the problem of where one 

 species shall end and another begin is an ex- 

 tremely difficult one to solve. 



I consider the leaf figured by Newberry on 

 Plate VL figure 1, of "Later extinct floras" 

 (Mon. 35) to be the typical form of this species, 

 thus agreeing with Newberry's original de- 

 scription and with his later opinion expressed 

 in 1898. This type bears considerable resem- 

 blance to some modern Sassafras leaves. A 

 slight widening of the terminal lobe of some of 

 these in tlie basal region would give a leaf 

 strikingly like Araliopsoides cretacea, or were 

 the sinuses of the latter slightly deeper we 

 would liave the typical modern leaf. In its 

 basal portion the leaf is like Sassafras, and the 

 indications point to a similar venation in this 

 region. The first pair of secondaries do not 

 branch to form margins of the sinuses; the left 

 one runs directh^ to the sinus, however, and 

 may possiblj- have conformed to the margin 

 and been efl'aced in the specimen; the right one 

 is stronger and runs almost to the sinus, where 

 it makes a sharp turn upward, continuing until 

 it joins the next secondary. This feature is 

 analogous to those in the modern leaf, which 

 mi\y indicate the mode of origin of this peculiar 

 character. This leaf seems to form a central 

 figure from which a series of forms grade in 

 several directions, culminating in cjuite dis- 

 similar leaves. Lescjuereux's Sassafras creta- 

 ceum is a more planatoid leaf, with more acute 

 tips, a tendency to become dentate, and the 

 primaries inserted nearer the base. Closely 

 allied to S. cretaceum is his Sassafras (Araliop- 

 sis) mirahile, which serves as a connecting link 

 with his Platunus recurvnta. From the Sassa- 

 fras cretaceum of Lesquereu.x it is Init a step to 

 such a leaf as the one shown on Plate VIII, fig- 

 ure 2, of "Later extinct floras" and to tlie tri- 

 lolied forms referred to Cissites harlcerianus, 

 and these in turn grade into the more cissoid 

 forms of this species, such as those shown on 

 Plate II, figure .3, of Lescjuereu.x's "Cretaceous 

 flora." The primaries are basal and of not 

 much greater caliber than the regularly suc- 

 ceeding straight secondaries. It is but a step 

 from this leaf to Cissites heerii, on the one 

 hand, with its palmately five-pointed blade, 

 and to such forms as Cissites acuminatus (PI. 

 V, fig. 4, "Cretaceous and Tertiary floras"), on 

 the other; which in turn, by the elimination of 

 the decreasing tlentate points, gives us the 

 leaf shown on Plate V, figure 3, "Cretaceous 

 and Tertiary floras." In tlie second series of 



