630 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 54. 



and about the size and shape of those of the existing jSaliae nigra 

 Marsh. 



Order PLATANALES. 



Family PLATANACEAE. 

 Genus PLATANUS Linnaeus. 



PLATANUS ACEROIDES Goeppert. 



Plate 94, fig. 3 ; plate 95, flg. 5. 



Platanus aceroides Goeppert, Zeits. Deutsch, Geol. Gesell., vol. 4, 1S52, 

 p. 492. 



There is no need for me to redescribe this exceedingly well-lmown 

 species. It is the most abundant form in the present collection where 

 it is represented by counterparts of both small and large leaves be- 

 side numerous fragments showing petioles, tips, and lobes, so that 

 collectively all parts of the leaf are well represented. Both the large 

 and the small leaves are identical in proportions, lobation, marginal 

 and basal characters with Goeppert's tj^pes ^ and with the leaves of 

 this species figured by Heer ^ from the Tortonian of Oeningen, 

 Baden. 



This species has been identified from such a variety of horizons 

 and localities that it would be fruitless to endeavor to make compari- 

 sons with all of the forms that stand in the literature as Platanus 

 aceroides. Undoubtedly some of these represent distinct species, but 

 it is impossible to make any rational segregation at the present time. 

 As the records stand it has a range from the basal Eocene to the 

 Pleistocene in this country, and from the Oligocene through the 

 Pliocene in Europe. 



Its typical development, however, is in the middle and upper 

 Miocene, and although it has not been discovered in the deposits of 

 the Miocene lake basin at Florissant, Colorado, it is present in the 

 John Day Miocene of Oregon and in the Calvert Miocene of Vir- 

 ginia. A very similar form, questionably distinct, is Platanus dis- 

 secta Lesquereux ^ from the California Miocene which is said to be 

 a larger and more coriaceous form. 



Plesioty pes. —C^t. Nos. 35283, 35284, U.S.N.M. 



1 Goeppert, H. R., Tertairflora von Schossnitz, 1855, p. 21, pi. 9, figs. 1-3. 



2 Heer, O., Fl. Tert. Helv., vol. 2, 1856, p. 71, pi. 87 ; pi. 88, figs. 5-12, 15. 



« Lesquereux, L., Mus. Comp. Zool., Memoirs, vol. 6, 1878, p. 13, pi. 7, fig. 12 ; pi. 10, 

 figs. 4, 5. 



