NO. 2229. FOSSIL PLANTS FROM BOLIVIA— BERRY, 151 



Margins entire. Texture subcoriaceous. Length, ranging from 2.5 

 to 3.5 cm. Maximum width, in the middle part of the leaflet, rang- 

 ing from 1.3 to 1.7 cm. Midrib stout and straight. Secondaries 

 thin, numerous, camptodrome. 



This species was contained in both the collections from Potosi 

 studied by Engelhardt, but has not been recognized in the other 

 collections. It is clearly distinct from the other members of the 

 Potosi flora, and was compared with the existing Sweetia elegans Ben- 

 tham, a Brazihan species. Britton's reference of this fossil to the 

 genus Swertia was simply a typographic error. 



The genus Sweetia consists of about 10 existing species of trees 

 confined to the South American Tropics and ranging from Guiana to 

 southern Brazil. It is not otherwise known in the fossil state. 



Genus LONCHOCARPUS Humboidt, Bonpland, and Kunth. 



LONCHOCARPUS OBTUSIFOLIUS Engelhardt. 



Plate 17, fig. 14. 



Lonchocarpus ohtusi/oKus Engelhardt, Sitz. Naturw. Gesell. Isis in Dresden. 

 1894, Abh. 1, p. 7, pi. 1, fig. 22 (not Engelhardt, 1895). 



Description.— heii^ets elliptical in outline, slightly inequilateral, 

 narrowed from below the middle to the broadly rounded base. 

 Margins entire. Texture subcoriaceous. Length, about 2.4 cm. 

 Maximum width, below the middle, about 1.4 cm. Midrib thm, 

 straight. Secondaries thin, about 5 subopposite, camptodrome 

 pairs. A few percurrent tertiaries visible. 



This species was described from Potosi by Engelhardt, who com- 

 pared it with the existing LonchocaijMS obtusus Bentham of the Bra- 

 zilian region. It is sparingly represented in the present collections. 

 It has also been recorded by Engelhardt ^ from the Tertiary of Ecua- 

 dor, although the two occurrences represent different species. It is 

 somewhat similar to three other Potosi species of Legmninosae — 

 namely, Dalhergia cJiartacea Engelhardt, Sweetia tertioria Engelhardt, 

 and Cassia chrysocarpoides Engelhardt. The first is relatively nar- 

 rower and longer, widest in the middle, not narrowed distad more 

 than proximad and more poiiited; the second is also widest in the 

 middle, not more narrowed distad than proximad and with more 

 niunerous and less ascending secondaries; the third is widest in the 

 middle, more pointed, not more narrowed distad than proximad, 

 and with more numerous and less ascending secondaries. 



Lonchocarpus is a genus with upward of 70 existing species of 

 trees and high climbmg shrubs of the tropical regions of America. 

 Africa, and Australia, with more than half the existing forms con- 

 fined to America. Several fossil species have been recorded, includ- 



i Engelhardt, H., Abh. Senck. Naturf. Gesell., vol. 19, p. 17, pi. 3, fig. 1, 1895. 



