156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.54. 



This little leaf is essentially myrtaceous in character and may be 

 compared with various existing species of Myrtus and Myrcia. It 

 shows more similarity, however to the leaves of the genus Myrteola, 

 a genus of 9 or 10 species of shrubs and undershrubs closely related 

 to Myrtus and now found in the existing flora in the Andean region 

 from Ecuador to the Straits of Magellan; one species of the last 

 region, Myrteola nummularia (Poiret) Berg, being also found on the 

 Falkland Islands. 



Holotype.—Csit. No. 35111, U.S.N.M. 



Family COMBRETACEAE. 



Genus TERMINALIA Linnaeus. 



TERMINALIA ANTIQUA Britton. 



Plate 18, figs. 8, 9. 



Temiinalia antiqua Britton, Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Eng., vol, 21, 1893, p. 254, 

 figs. 16, 28, 68-70. 



Description. — Samaras bialate, elliptical in outlme, wider than 

 high, emarginate at the summit, cordate, truncate or decurrent to 

 the stout peduncle. Length ranging from 1 to 2 cm. Width 

 ranging from 1.1 to 2.5 cm. Pedxmcle ranging from 5 to 10 mm. in 

 length, curved or straight. Essential part of fruit narrowly fusiform, 

 extending upward four-fifths or all the way to the apical sinus. 

 Wings thin, scarious. Veins numerous, thin, said by Britton to be 

 simple but abundantly forked and anastomosing in my material. 



These characteristic fruits are not uncommon at Potosi and Britton 

 has figured a number to illustrate their variations. My material is 

 smaller but otherwise indistinguishable, and undoubtedly belongs to 

 the same species. On the other hand a Terminalia fruit collected at 

 Corocoro, while it is bialate, is considerably larger and more coria- 

 ceous, with a large turbinate seed cavity and this I have described as 

 a distinct species. While these Potosi fruits are suggestive of some 

 of the Sapindaceae and average smaller than most modern winged 

 Terminalia fruits, I have no hesitation in refeiTiag them to the latter 

 genus. According to Britton ^ the present species is closely com- 

 parable to fruits of the existing Terminalia oUonga Persoon collected 

 in Guatemala. 



Terminalia is a large genus in the existing flora of the tropics of 

 both hemispheres, with over 100 species about equally divided 

 between America, Asia, Africa, and Austraha. It is an old type and 

 the modern species are segregated into four sections, based primarily 

 on the characters of the fruit which may be fleshy, ligneous, or 

 variously winged. So far as I know Terminalia is not now endemic 



« Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 21, 1893, p. 254. 



