MARYLAND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 867 



Sassafras acutilobum Berry, 1904, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, vol. xxxi, pi i 



fig. 6. 

 Sassafras acutilobum Berry, 1906, Ann. Kept. State Geol. Survey of New 



Jersey for 1905, p. 139, pi. xxii, figs. 4, 5. 

 Sassafras acutilo'bum Hollick, 1907, Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. 1, p. 77, pi. 



xxx, figs. 8, 9. 



Sassafras acutilo'bum Berry, 1910, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, vol. xxxvii, p. 22. 

 Sassafras acutilobum Berry, 1911, Bull. 3, Geol. Survey of New Jersey, p. 



140, pi. xviii, fig. 2. 



Description. Trilobate leaves, variable in size and outline. Length 

 2.5 cm. (in young leaves which are preserved at Woodbridge, New Jersey) 

 up to 14 cm., averaging 10 cm. to 12 cm. Width from the tips of the 

 lateral lobes likewise ranging from 1 cm. to 15 cm., averaging about 

 10 cm. Lobes mostly conical and acute, the middle being usually slightly 

 the broadest and longest. Lateral lobes directed more or less laterally. 

 Base decurrent. The sinuses between the lobes are usually open and 

 rounded, the margins forming an angle of approximately 90. There is 

 considerable variation, however, in this respect, some of the leaves having 

 comparatively narrow sinuses with the lobes directed upward, as in 

 Sassafras progenitor Hollick, while others at the opposite extreme of the 

 series have extremely shallow sinuses, so shallow that the leaf has the 

 appearance of a triangularly pointed, entire leaf. The lateral primaries 

 may branch from the midrib at or near the base, as they do in a majority 

 of the Raritan forms, or their point of divergence may be a considerable 

 distance above the base, as in modern Sassafras leaves. Their angle of 

 divergence from the midrib varies from about 30 to 40. The secon- 

 daries are usually numerous., regular, camptodrome, and connected by 

 transverse tertiaries, although in the Raritan leaves this uniformity is 

 often lacking. Petiole stout and long. The margin vein along the 

 sinus, a marked feature in modern leaves of this genus, is generally want- 

 ing in this species, although present in occasional specimens. 



This species is apparently widely distributed and almost as variable as 

 the modern Sassafras. Described originally from the Dakota group as a 

 variety of Sassafras mudgei, it occurs also on Marthas Vineyard and Long 

 Island and in the Raritan and Magothy formations of New Jersey and 

 Delaware. It has been recorded from Cerro Guido, Argentina, and Vele- 



