1902] NOTES ON 



45 



disconnected in many ways, it has seemed best to arrange and 

 present them. 



A common error is the belief that a truncate or emarginate 

 apex is a constant feature, indifced, no doubt, by a consideration 

 of the vernation, which would seem to preclude any other form 

 of apex, and which has been the subject of papers by Lubbock^ 

 and others. Lesquereux^ says "leaves always truncate or 

 emarginate at the apex/' and Newberry 5 makeg the same state- 

 ment. Holhi,^ in his paper on the leaves of Liriodcndron, goes 

 still further, and insists that the notched apex is the true test of 

 the genus Liriodcndron, and hence unnotched leaves or forms 

 with the apex of the leaf missing cannot be identified with cer- 

 tainty; and Holiick 7 makes the statement that the apex is 

 always cuneate or notched. Doubtless others have followed the 

 lead of these authorities. 



I have collected numerous leaves of Liriodejidroji Ttilipifcra 

 with pointed lips, and I have also a number of similar specimens 

 collected by Mrs. W. A. Kellerman, of Columbus, O., showing 

 how fallacious the above cited criterion proves. Among my col- 

 lections of these anomalous forms may be noted a simple obovate 

 leaf closely resembling Phyllites obcordatics Heer ; a trilobed form 

 identical with Liriodendron semialaUim Lesq. of the Dakota 

 group; a small leaf unlike anything before known in this genus 

 and almost exactly corresponding with Cissites acumifiaius Lesq., 

 /^' 5i fig' J, of his Cretaceous mid Tertiary Floras; a large trilobed 

 leaf which is also a new form in the genus and recalls Hcer's 

 Aralia grocnlandica; also numerous ovate-lanceolate leaf blades 

 on leaf bearing flower buds [sc^ fig-j)- The foregoing exam- 

 ples are sufficient to refute the claim that the notched apex is an 

 essential character, and we should expect to find just such leaf 

 forms if we accept the origin of Liriodendron from forms with 

 simple, magnolia-like leaves. Fossil species based on leaf forms 



3 Phytobiological observations. Jour Linn. Soc. 22 • 24. 1887 ; and GoDRON, A-, 

 Obs. sur les bourgeons et sur les feuilles des Liriodendron Tulipifera, BulL Soc. 

 Bot. France 8:1861. 



♦Flora of Dakota group, p. 229. ^Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 13 : 1890. 



5 Flora of the Amboy clays. 7 Proc. Nat. Sci. Ass. Staten Is. 5 : no. 7. 1896. 



