1903] ARALIA IN AMERICAN PALEOBOTANY 423 
which overlies the Raritan and with which it is closely related 
both geologically and botanically, there occur numerous Aralia- 
like leaves. I have identified? five species from this horizon, 
and the protean character of all of these mid-Cretaceous forms 
is emphasized when we find but two of these Matawan leaves 
referable to Raritan forms and these not entirely identical, while 
two others are entirely new. 
Saporta would consider all the forms referred to Sassafras 
(Araliopsis) as included in the Araliaceae, but it seems to me 
that most of these leaves have stronger affinities in other direc- 
tions. Ward would consider these Aralia-like leaves as referable 
to Platanus or its ancestral prototype. I have provisionally 
referred Sassafras acutilobum L. to Aralia.3 Among the remainder 
of the American species of Sassafras, those which are not true 
Species of Sassafras are related to Cissites or Platanus (Proto- 
platanus) . 
Three types of leaves have been referred to Aralia: (1) 
palmately three to seven-lobed leaves; (2) pinnately or ternately 
parted leaves; (3) simple leaves or leaflets. 
Leaves of the first style, which concern us more particu- 
larly, may be briefly characterized as follows: Palmately 3-7 
lobed, thick or coriaceous; petiole usually present and stout; 
margins entire or dentate; primaries 3-5 (7 in A. dissecta) gen- 
erally rather stout, basal in ten species, sub-basal in ten species, 
and supra-basilar in fifteen species, doubtful in a few cases; 
lateral primaries when forked usually above their base, often 
present as basal sub-primaries; secondaries camptodrome in 
the entire-margined forms and craspedodrome in those which 
have dentate margins, both characters combined in some spe- 
cies; areolation obsolete, or square, or polygonal ; base decur- 
rent or cuneate in twenty species, rounded or truncate in fourteen 
Species, doubtful in the balance, of which one is cordate and two 
or three are lobate. Young leaves may be entire-margined and 
three-lobed, while older leaves are dentate and five-lobed, which 
has caused a further duplication of species. 
We may distinguish Sassafras, Sterculia, and Platanus, 
?Flora Matawan formation. 1903. 3BoT, GAZ. 34: 438. 1902. 
