agt.19. MIOCENE PLANTS FROM SOUTHERN MEXICO—BERRY. 5 
Genus ACROSTICHUM Linnaeus. 
ACROSTICHUM MEXICANUM, new species. 
Plate 1, fig. 3. 
Frond large, of unknown habit, presumably pinnate. Pinnae 
thin but coriaceous, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate in outline. Apex 
unknown. Base acuminate, sessile. Margins entire, somewhat 
regularly undulate. Length unknown, but considerable. Max- 
imum width observed, slightly over4 em. Midvein stout and prom- 
inent, somewhat flexuous. Venation of the lamina consisting of very 
thin intricately anastomosing nervilles, the meshes of which in the 
narrow base of the pinna are elongated parallel with the midvein; 
higher up they turn outward, forming an angle of about 45° with it. 
This obviously new species is represented by the single incomplete 
specimen figured. It represents a most interesting genus, prominent 
in coastal floras of the Eocene of the United States, and occurring 
also during that time in Europe. Several fossil species have been 
described and these disappear from present day temperate latitudes 
during the Oligocene. The modern species, as the genus is now 
understood, are few in number, and comprise in addition to several 
unimportant Carribbean species, the wide ranging tropical Acrostichum 
aureum, & common coastal species of the mangrove and Nipa swamps, 
and similar situations, more especially of the less saline and less wet 
soils of the warmer regions of the world. In America it ranges north- 
ward to southern peninsular Florida and southward to southern 
Brazil, and it is especially common on the Atlantic side of southern 
Mexico and Central America. In Africa it ranges from Guinea to 
Natal, and in the Mascarene and Seychelles islands. In the Orient 
it ranges from southern China to northern Australia and Polynesia. 
It is most natural as well as gratifying to find it represented by a 
similar fossil species in the Miocene of southern Mexico. 
Occurrence.—Isthmian railroad 3? km. north of Palomares on 
Saravia estate, State of Oaxaca. 
Holotype.—Cat. No. 36812, U.S. N. M. 
Phylum ANGIOSPERMOPHYTA. 
Class MONOCOTYLEDONAE. 
Order ARECALES. 
Family ARECACEAE. 
PALM RAYS. 
Plate 5, fig. 4. 
There are numerous broken rays of a palm in the collection from 
the Saravia estate. They are small and slender, but whether they 
60466—23—Proc.N.M.vol.62——-44 
