NO. 2229. FOSSIL PLAMS FROM BOLIVIA— BERRY. 123 



Class DICOTYLEDONAE. 

 Order MYRICALES. 



Family MYRICACEAE. 



Genus MYRICA Linnaeus. 



MYRICA BANESIOIDES Engelhardt. 



Plate 15, figs. 6, 7. 



Myrica banksioides Engelhardt, Sitz. Naturw. Gesell. Isis in Dresden, 1887, 

 Abh. 5, p. 36, pi. 1, figs. 10, 14; 1894, Abh. 1, p. 5, pi. 1, figs. 6, 7, 14, 17.— 

 Britton, Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 21, 1893, p. 256, figs. 5-8. 



Description. — Leaves linear lanceolate in outline, frequently falcate, 

 gradually narrowed to the acuminate tip and to the narrowly cuneate 

 base. Length ranging from 3 cm. to 8 cm. Maximum width, in the 

 middle part of the leaf, ranging from 4 mm. to 9 mm. Margins some- 

 times nearly entire, usually toothed; the basal one-third is usually 

 entire, above which irregularly developed and more or less distant 

 serrate teeth are present. Tiie teeth may be small and straight- 

 serrate or large and salient-serrate, separated by regularly curved 

 sinuses, or small and directed upward, thus approaching aquiline- 

 serrate. The smaller specimen figured in the present report or Engel- 

 hardt's figure 14 (1894) illustrate the unequal character and maxi- 

 mum size of the teeth. The teeth of the opposite margins may show 

 differences in character as illustrated in my smaller figure cited above. 

 The texture is coriaceous. In the very abundant material no petioles 

 are preserved. The midrib is stout and prominent on the lower sur- 

 face of the leaf. The secondaries are numerous, subparallel, thick, and 

 more or less immersed in the leaf substance; they diverge from the 

 midrib at angles of about 45° and are generally rather straight in 

 their courses. Each marginal tooth is traversed by a craspedodrome 

 secondary. Wliere marginal teeth are not developed the secondaries 

 are camptodrome, and there are usually one or more camptodrome 

 secondaries between adjacent craspedodrome secondaries. The ter- 

 tiary venation is obscure and largely immersed. 



This unmistakable species of Myrica is the most abundant fossil in 

 the present collections, except for the minute leaflets of Calliandra 

 ohliqua Engelhardt, and it appears to have been equally abundant in 

 the collections studied by both Engelhardt and Britton. Engelhardt ^ 

 compared it with Myrica hajiksiaefoUa Unger,^ of the Oligocene and 

 Miocene of Europe, and with Myrica polynlorplia Schimper,^ of the 

 OUgocene of Europe, and said to be present in the upper Eocene of 



1 Sitz Naturw. Gesell, Isis iu Dresden, 1887, Abh. 5, p. 36. 



2 Unger, Foss. Fl. v. t'otzka, 1850, p. IGO, pi. 27, figs. 3, 4. 

 8 Schimper, Pal. Vegdt., vol. 2, 1872, p. .536. 



