4RT.19. MIOCENE PLANTS FROM SOUTHERN MEXICO—BERRY. 15 
the Eocene, Oligocene, and lower Miocene. The present species is 
not unlike Fagara catahoulensis orbiculata Berry,” but shows its 
distinctness in its more numerous, thinner secondaries, its elliptical 
instead of orbicular form, and indistinct areolation. It also resembles 
somewhat the antecedent Fagara claibornensis Berry?’ and Fagara 
petraflumensis Berry” of the middle and upper Eocene. The 
existing species of Fagara number over 150 shrubs and trees, cosmo- 
politan in the warmer parts of the world and including a number of 
distinctly coastal types. 
Occurrence.—Isthmian railroad ? km. north of Palomares on 
Saravia estate; 100 meters east of old trans-Isthmian road and 
Arroya Limon, 64 km. northwest of Palomares, State of Oaxaca. 
Holotype.—Cat. No. 36825, U.S. N. M. 
Family EUPHORBIACEAE. 
Genus DRYPETES Vahl. 
DRYPETES ELLIPTICA, new species. 
Plate 7, fig. 5. 
Leaves small, elliptical in general outline; widest medianly and 
narrowed about equally to the similarly rounded apex and base, the 
latter slightly broader than the former. Margins entire. Texture 
subcoriaceous. Length about 5.5 cm. Maximum width about 2.7 
em. Petiole missing. Midrib stout. Secondaries stout, widely 
spaced, about five subopposite pairs; they diverge from the midrib 
at wide angles and form wide camptodrome arches some distnace 
within the margins. Tertiaries forming successive arches in the 
marginal region; internally forming open polygonal meshes. 
Areolation fine, quadrangular or polygonal, isodiametric. 
This type of leaf makes its appearance in the fossil record in the 
lower Eocene of the Mississippi embayment region and has continued 
to exist in the Caribbean area from that time to the present. The 
existing species number about a dozen, ranging from southern penin- 
sular Florida to Brazil The fossil is not unlike the leaves of the 
existing white wood, Drypetes keyensis Urban, a considerable tree of 
south Florida and the Antilles. It is also not unlike the Wilcox 
species Drypetes prekeyensis Berry *. 
Occurrence.—Isthmian railroad 2 km. north of Palomares on the 
Saravia estate, State of Oaxaca. 
Holotype.—Cat. No. 36826, U.S.N.M. 
20 Berry, E. W., U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 98, p. 240, pl. 59, figs. 1-3, 1916. 
21 and 2 Berry, E. W., Idem., 92 (in press). 
23 Berry, E. W., U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 91, p. 258, pl. 58, fig. 4, 1916. 
