DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. LDA 
Williamson’ considered the first discovered species as the flower of Zamia 
gigas, an opinion concurred in by Carruthers,” who named the genus; Heer 
considered Williamsonia as a parasite allied to Rafilesia, while Saporta con- 
sidered the plant which bore these flowers as monocotyledonous and allied 
to Pandanus.* 
There is, however, this marked difference between Paleeanthus and 
any of the species of Williamsonia known, such as W. gigas Carr., W. 
Leckenbyi Nath. W. Blanfordi Feistm., W. virginiensis Font., that these 
all consist of a series of floral envelopes of a tenacious and permanent 
character, surrounding an internal, urn-like, pear-shaped, or cylindrical 
spadix, the whole florescence sessile or short-peduncled; whereas in Palee- 
anthus the ray-florets surround a tessellated disk, closely resembling the 
achenia-bearing receptacle of composite flowers, and are surrounded by a 
scaled involucre and supported by a well-defined stem. 
Wituramsonra Smockit Newb. n. sp. 
Pl. XXXVI, figs. 1-8. 
The flower cup-shaped or cylindrical, open above, with a simple mar- 
gin, which is generally expanded slightly, sometimes contracted; below 
it rests upon a conical receptacle which reaches evenly downward, but 
narrows to a comparatively slender stem. 
The dimensions vary considerably, from 2.5°" to more than 3 in 
breadth, and from 2.5°" to nearly 4™ in height. The base of the flower 
and the stem seem to be covered with scales or bracts. Perhaps fifty of 
these flowers have been found in the Amboy Clays, and yet nowhere has 
any connection with any other plant been detected. There is great simi- 
larity between these flowers and those which I have called Paleeanthus, 
but in the latter the flower consists of a large number of distinct and sep- 
arable scarious spiral envelopes, which are sometimes radiately expanded, 
‘Williamson: Linn. Trans. Vol. XX VI, p. 663-674, Pls. LIT, LITI. 
*Carruthers: Linn. Trans. Vol. XX VI, pp. 680, 691. 
‘The following further references may be found of assistance in this connection: 
Phillips: Geol. Yorksh., 3d ed., pp. 224, 225, Pl. XXIV. 
Feistmantel: Flora of Kach (Palieontologia Indica), p. 52, Pl. XII, figs. 5-7. 
Nathorst: Ofversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Férhandlingar, 1880, p. 33; 1888, p. 359. 
Fontaine: Potomac Flora, p. 273, Pl. CXXXIII, figs. 5-7; Pl. CLXV, fig. 5. 
