862 SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY 



Laurus plutonia Berry, 1906, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, vol. xxxi, p. 77, pi. iii, 



fig. 1. 



Laurus plutonia Berry, 1906, Ibidem, vol. xxxiii, p. 178. 

 Laurus plutonia Hollick, 1907, Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. 1, p. 80, pi. xxvii, 



figs. 9, 11; pi. xxviii, figs. 1, 2. 



Laurus plutonia Berry, 1910, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, vol. xxxvii, p. 26. 

 Laurus plutonia Berry, 1912, Ibidem, vol. xxxix, p. 401. 

 Laurus plutonia Berry, 1914, Prof. Paper U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 86, p. 52, 



pi. xi, fig. 2; pi. xiii, fig. 6. 



Description. Leaves lanceolate in outline, usually tapering almost 

 equally in both directions, but sometimes less acute at the base. Length 

 7 cm. to 11 cm. Maximum width 1.5 cm. to 2.5 cm. Midrib mediumly 

 stout. Petiole short and stout, 6 mm. to 15 mm. in length. Secondaries 

 slender, eight or more alternate pairs, camptodrome. 



This species was described by Heer from the Atane beds of Greenland, 

 and a large number of somewhat variable and fragmentary specimens were 

 figured. 



Subsequent to its description by Professor Heer, this species was 

 recorded from a very large number of Cretaceous plant beds so that its 

 present range, both geographical and geological, is rather wide. A num- 

 ber of these records are not entirely above question, and this appears to be 

 especially true of the forms from the Cenomanian of Bohemia which 

 Velenovsky so identifies (op. cit.). 



Laurus plutonia is evidently a rare plant in the Earitan formation, but 

 becomes abundant in immediately succeeding floras, being common in 

 that of the Dakota group of the West, and in the Magothy formation of the 

 East, at a number of localities in New Jersey and Maryland. It is a com- 

 mon form in the insular Cretaceous floras, and also occurs in the Tusca- 

 loosa, Woodbine and Eutaw formations of the Gulf Coastal Plain. Sup- 

 posed fruits are figured by Heer (loc cit., pi. xlii, fig. 4b). In South 

 Carolina this species is represented by typical leaves which are not 

 at all uncommon in the Middendorf beds. It has not yet been detected in 

 the North Carolina Cretaceous. 



Occurrence. MAGOTHY F OKMATIOX. Grove Point, Cecil County; 

 Bound Bay, Anne Arundel County. 



Collection. Marvland Geological Survey. 



