TERTIARY FOSSIL PLANTS FROM THE ARGENTINE 



REPUBLIC 



By Edward W. Berry 

 Of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 



INTRODUCTION 



There are in the United States National Museum several small lots 

 -of rather indifferently preserved fossil plants collected by Chester W. 

 Washburne in the Territories of Rio Negro and Santa Cruz during 

 the explorations of the Hydrological Survey made for the Govern- 

 ment of Argentina under the direction of Bailey Willis in 1911-1913. 

 AH are impressions of foliage, for the most part fragmentary, and 

 preserved in clayey or sandy tuffs. The character of the material and 

 its small amount render it impossible to deduce any far-reaching con- 

 clusions; nevertheless, considerable that is of interest has resulted 

 from its study. 



In striking contrast with the wealth of information regarding the 

 Tertiary terrestrial faunas of Patagonia, very little is known about 

 the contemporaneous terrestrial floras. In 1899 Dusen described ^ a 

 small and rather poor collection of plants of Tertiary age from what 

 he called the Fagus and Araucaria zones from several localities on 

 both sides of the Strait of Magellan, and in 1925 I described ^ a 

 rather well preserved collection from Chubut Territory which ap- 

 peared to have come from the so-called Santa Cruz formation. 



LOCALITIES 



The present collections came from the following five localities — 

 three in Rio Negro Territory and two in Santa Cruz Territory — and 

 the only information I have regarding them is contained on the labels 

 accompanying them. The Rio Negro localities are all in the vicinity 

 of Lago Nahuel Huapi, and with the collectors numbers are : 



176. Folded tuffs 4 Inn. west southwest of Bernal (4 leagues 

 southeast of Barriloche) ; 



iDus€n, P., Svenska Exped. Masellansliinderna, vol. 1. Xo. 4, 1899. 



' Berry, Edward W., Johns Hopkins University Studies in Geology, No. 6, 1925. 



No. 2743.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 73, Art. 22 



95864—28 1 1 



