COROCORO COPPER DISTRICT OF BOLIVIA 103 



Family PAPILIONACE^ 



Genus Amicia H. B. K. 



Amicia antiqua BRITTON 



Amicia antiqua Britton, Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Eng., vol. 21, 

 1893, P. 252, figs. 11, 45. 

 Berry, Proc. U. S. Natl. Mus., vol. 54, p. 146, pi. 17, figs. 4, 5, 1917. 



Description. Leaflets sessile, narrowly or broadly cuneate 

 in general outline, with an emarginate apex. Lengtn 

 ranging from 2 to 3 cm. Maximum width in the apical 

 part of the leaflet ranging from 0.75 to 1.4 cm. Margins 

 entire, slightly undulate. Texture coriaceous. Midrib 

 mediumly stout, slightly flexuous, prominent on the lower 

 surface of the leaflets. Secondaries thin, numerous, ascend- 

 ing, camptodrome. Tertiaries obsolete. 



This species was described by Britton from a limited 

 amount of material collected by Wendt at Potosi and 

 collected by the authors in 1919 at both Corocoro and 

 Potosi. It may be compared with the existing Amicia 

 lobbiana Bentham found at considerable altitudes in the 

 Peruvian and Bolivian Andes (1,800-3,000 meters). 



The genus Amicia, not otherwise known fossil, com- 

 prises five or six species of shrubs or undershrubs of the 

 Andean region, ranging from Mexico to Bolivia. 



The identification of the present species is somewhat 

 questionable upon general grounds, for while the fossil 

 agrees with the existing leaflets of Amicia, and it is quite 

 natural to identify the fossil leaflets with a recent genus 

 of the same general region ; the fact that the vast majority 

 of the fossil forms found at Corocoro are related to exist- 

 ing forms of the more humid regions of eastern Bolivia 

 and the Amazon Basin, raises the question whether the 

 present leaflets may not be more properly referable to 

 some other leguminous genus with similar leaflets, such 

 as would more naturally be expected to occur under such 

 conditions and in such an association, as, for example, 

 the genus Dalbergia, which is represented by pods at 



