846 SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY 



Genus BAUHINIA Linne 

 [Sp. PL, 1753, p. 374] 



BAUHINIA MARYLANDICA Berry 



Plate LXXV, Figs. 5-7 

 Bauhinia marylandica Berry, 1908, Torreya, vol. viii, p. 218, figs. 1-3. 



Description. Leaves small, about 3 cm. in greatest length by 2.5 cm. in 

 greatest breadth, elliptical in general outline, bilobate; the apical sinus 

 narrow and pointed, reaching one-half to two-thirds of the distance to 

 the base; lobes narrow, ascending, somewhat falcate in outline, obtusely 

 pointed; midrib straight, giving off one, two or three sharply ascending 

 pairs of opposite, camptodrome secondaries, these give off a series of 

 broadly rounded inequilateral tertiary arches which are directed upward 

 and outward ; the upper pair of secondaries the most prominent ; from the 

 juncture of the midrib and sinus a pair of much reduced secondaries is 

 given off and these join the secondary next below in one or two broad 

 arches. 



The present species was described in 1908 from the Magothy formation 

 at Grove Point, Maryland, where it is abundant. It is sparingly repre- 

 sented in the lower part of the Tuscaloosa formation of western Alabama. 



The form and venation of these leaves are exactly like several of the 

 existing species of Bauhinia,, and are so well marked that there can be no 

 doubt of the existence of a species of Bauhinia growing along the middle 

 and south Atlantic coast during the deposition of the Upper Cretaceous, 

 a species whose descendants along with those of its congeners migrated 

 finally to their present tropical habitat, perhaps gradually with the oscil- 

 lation of climatic conditions, and perhaps not until the Pleistocene glaci- 

 ation to the northward forced them to make a comparatively sudden 

 retreat to the southward. 



Occurrence. MAGOTHY FORMATION. Grove Point, Cecil County, 

 Eound Bay, Anne Arundel County. 



Collection. Maryland Geological Survey. 



