PLIOCENE PISLLYPAMPA BOLIVIA 167 



Order ARECALES 



Family ARECACE/E 



Genus IRIARTITES Berry 



Iriartites bolizncnsis Berry, sp. nov. 



PLATE III Fig. 2 



This species is based upon the broken rays of a feather 

 palm and scarcely deserves to be dignified with a specific 

 name. Since, however, it is distinct from the other known 

 species of Iriartites, and comes from so remote a region that 

 more complete material can scarcely be expected to turn up 

 in the future, it is deemed less clumsy to name it than to be 

 obliged to refer to it as Iriartites sp. It may be partially 

 described as follows : Rays linear-lanceolate, long and rela- 

 tively narrow the widest seen not being over 3.2 cm. in 

 width. Keels not especially prominent, traversed by a rela- 

 tively thin primary vein. Lateral veins thin but prominent, 

 closely spaced, parallel, about four to a millimeter. Some 

 of these laterals appear to have been slightly stouter than 

 others but this may be due entirely to the preservation, since 

 in the impressions the interspaces simulate coarse veins. 

 Texture coriaceous. The remains are common enough 

 throughout the clays, but are much broken. They afford the 

 evidence of a perfectly logical element in the plant association 

 found fossil at this locality, and one that is of importance 

 in any discussions of the environment in which this flora 

 lived. 



The genus Iriartites was established for the remains of a 

 palm found in the Miocene of northern coastal Peru a short 

 distance south of Tumbez. 13 The only other known species 

 is based upon characteristic Iriartea-like fruits from the 

 Gatun formation (Miocene) of the Panama Canal Zone. 

 The existing genus Iriartea Ruiz & Pavon, which gives its 

 name to the- fossil genus Iriartites, contains an unknown 



13 Berry, E W., Proc. U. S. Natl. Mus., vol. 55, p. 285, pi. 14, 1919. 



