22 PROCEEDINGS OP THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.73 



the existing flora, one in New Zealand and the other two in Chile 

 in the region between 36° and 42° south latitude. If botanical sys- 

 tematists are correct in their opinion that these belong to the same 

 genus, then we are bound to presuppose that it had a geological 

 history unless we are prepared to subscribe to the once fashionable 

 but now absurd notion that a genus can originate more than once 

 and in different areas. Excluding the highly problematical fossil 

 forms from the Northern Hemisphere which have been referred to 

 Laurelict^ a fossil species has been described by Dusen^^ from the 

 Tertiary of Seymour Island, Antarctica. 



This is a somewhat fragmentary specimen of a larger size, with less 

 ascending secondaries and more pointed teeth than Laurelia a/moHl- 

 Icma, and also less similar to the existing Laurelia aromatica. 



Odcv/rrence. — Bluff one-half league south of Mata Amarilla, upper 

 Kio Chalia, Territory of Santa Cruz. 



Eolotype.—Cdit. No. 37870, U.S.N.M. 



Family LAURACEAE 



Genus LAUROPHYLLUM, Goeppert 



LAUROPHYLLUM CHALIANUM, new species 



Plate 5, Figure 4 



Leaves elongate-lanceolate, widest below the middle, with an ex- 

 tended gradually narrowed tip and a more abruptly acute base. 

 Margins entire. Texture subcoriaceous. Length about 9 to 10 centi- 

 meters. Maximum width about 1.5 centimeters. Midvein stout, 

 somewhat flexuous, prominent on the under side of the leaf. Second- 

 aries thin, numerous, diverging from the midvein at acute angles, 

 long ascending, eventually camptodrome. Tertiaries obsolete. 



This species is represented by several incomplete specimens and is 

 evidently Lauraceous. As it is impossible to determine its generic 

 position with certainty, it is referred to the form genus Lofurophyl- 

 Iwm. It may represent the genus Nectandra, although similar leaves 

 occur in several existing Lauraceous genera of the warmer parts of 

 South America. 



A typical species of Nectandra is present in the supposed Santa 

 Cruz beds of Chubut Territory ,^^ so that this genus is known to have 

 ranged farther south during the Tertiary than it does at the present 

 time. 



Occwrenoe. — Three miles north of Estancia Chalia, Rio Chalia, 

 Territory of Santa Cruz. 



Holotyp^.—C^i. No. 37871, U.S.N.M. 



22DuS(;n, P., Schwed. Sudpolar-Exped., vol. 3, Lief. 3, p. 4, pi. 1, fig. 5, 1908. 

 23 Berry, Edward W., Johns Hopkins University Studies in Geology, No. 5, p. 224, pi. 8, 

 fig. 1, 1925. 



