442 BOTANICAL GAZE7TE [December 



Upper Cretaceous of Baynes sound, Vancouver island. All are 

 imperfect specimens, representing a small apparently trilobed 

 leaf of doubtful affinities. 



Sassafras Selwynii Dawson.- — Dawson says of this leaf "As 

 much entitled to be referred to Sassafras as many of the Creta- 

 ceous species ; near to 5. cretaceum Newberry, particularly the 

 variety obhtsiim Lesq." From the Upper Laramie of the Souris 

 river region ; it was the first representative of this genus in the 

 Laramie. It resembles Aralia acerifolia and A. notata Lesq., 

 especially the latter, in its venation. The rounded base and 

 basal primaries preclude us from considering it a species of 

 Sassafras. 



Sassafras (Araliofsis) Burpeana Dawson. — From the Cana- 

 dian Upper Laramie at Shagnappi point, Calgary, Canada. This 

 species can also hardly be considered a Sassafras. The second- 

 aries are regularly spaced and straight, the margins of the 

 terminal and one lateral lobe are straight. It may represent the 

 terminal portion of a compound leaf, such as Rhus or Sapindus^ 

 or it may be the fragment of an Aralia leaf (see A. Masoni 

 Lesq). Lester F. Ward considers'^^ both 5. Burpeaiia and 5. 

 Sehvynii as belonging to the Platanoid group of leaves. Neither 

 formcanbe allied to any modern Sassafras leaf by any characters 

 they present, unless it be the fact that they are trilobed, as are 

 also some forms of Aralia, Cissites, Platanus, Aspidiophyllum, 

 Menispermites, etc. This leaves not a single species of this 

 genus in the Laramie, although Sassafras must have been present 

 in the flora of that period. 



Sassafras (Araliopsis) harkerianum Lesq.^ — Lesquereux 

 says of this form, ''evidently related to 5. cretaceum obttisum and 

 to S. obtiisttm,'' and ** evidently related to Araliopsis." The 

 name includes rounded, trilobate leaves ; nearly simple 

 rounded leaves; and simple acuminate leaves very similar to 

 Cissites acuminatus Lesq. The primaries are sub-basal as in the 

 latter, or are inserted some distance from the base of the blade as 

 in Cissites Heerii Lesq. The trilobate forms are included by New- 



=«Compare with Lesq., Fl. Dak. Group, //. 3b. fig, 4; pi 64. fig, /8. 

 ^^GeoL Dist. Fossil plants, p. 842. 



