18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. VOL. 62. 
The genus is otherwise unknown in the fossil state except for two 
very similar species described by Engelhardt ?? from a probably 
similar Miocene horizon in the Magdalena valley of Colombia. The 
existing species number more than 40, mostly climbing shrubs, and 
occur in all tropics, but fully half of that number are peculiar to the 
rain forest country of the Amazon basin and adjacent regions. 
Occurrence.—Isthmian railroad ? km. north of Palomares on the 
Saravia estate, State of Oaxaca. 
Holotype.—Cat. No. 36829, U. S. N. M. 
Order THYMELEALES. 
Family LAURACEAE. 
Genus NECTANDRA Roland. 
NECTANDRA TEHUANTEPECENSIS, new species. 
Plate 1, fig. 6. 
Leaves of medium size, lanceolate in outline, somewhat falcate, 
widest medianly and equally acutely pointed at the apex and 
base. Margins entire. Texture coriaceous. Length about 9 to 
10cm. Maximum width 3.8cm. Petiole stout, its length unknown. 
Midrib stout, prominent on the under side of the leaf, curved. 
Secondaries stout, prominent, subparallel, and camptodrome 
about 10, mostly alternate, regularly spaced pairs diverge from the 
midrib at angles of about 45°, sweeping upward in ascending regular 
curves. With the exception of a few percurrent nervilles the 
tertiaries are obsolete by immersion. 
This is a typical Nectandra, very similar to several existing and 
fossil species. Among the latter it is not unlike Nectandra gosport- 
ensis jacksonensis Berry** of the upper Eocene of the Gulf border 
of the United States, and may possibly represent a more southern 
Miocene survivor of that form. 
The existing species of Nectandra number about 70 and are confined 
to the tropical and subtropical parts of the Western Hemisphere. 
They, along with other members of the family Lauraceae are 
especially massed in the rain forests of northern South America, and 
this South American facies, recognized in the existing flora of the 
Mexican lowlands, appears to have been foreshadowed during the 
Tertiary. 
Occurrence.—Isthmian railroad 2 km. north of Palomares on the 
Saravia estate, State of Oaxaca. 
Holotype.—Cat. No. 36830, U.S. N. M. 
27 Engelhardt, H., Abh. Senck. Naturf. Gesell., vol. 19, pp. 33, 34, pl. 4, figs. 4-7, 1895 
28 Berry, E. W., U S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 92 (in press). 
