40 THE FLORA OF THE DAKOTA GROUP. 



Smilax geandifolia-ceetacea, sp. nov. 

 PI. XLVI, Fig. 3. 



Leaf large, coriaceous, entire, hastate-cordate or siibauriculate at base, 

 acuminate, live-nerved from the base, the two external nerves short, arcuate, 

 the imier much longer, subacrodrome, vanishing below the apex, branching 

 outside, the branches arched, of varying length, simple or forking; sec- 

 ondaries few, at right angles to the midrib ; areolation obsolete. 



The leaf is partly destroyed on one side, yet has its essential character 

 clearly preserved. Its length is 9*"", its width 8*"" in the lower part, where 

 apparently it had its widest diameter ; the border, gi'adually rounding, de- 

 scends a little lower than the base of the midrib, and then tending upward 

 from a broad sinus or short broad auricles. 



The leaf is related to Smihicifi'S gmndifoUa Ung.,^ a leaf deeply sagitate- 

 cordate at base, eleven-nerved. Still niore intimately related to the same 

 species is Smilax grandlfolia Heer, as figured by Ettingshausen,^ two leaves 

 still larger than that from Kansas, five-nerved, the lateral nerves disposed 

 and branching as seen in our figure, the base of the leaves broadly rounded 

 and forming as in our species, a broad narrow sinus between the basilar 

 borders. 



Though the upper part of the leaf figured in the Flora v. Bilin is 

 destroyed, the fragment indicates for the whole a form similar to that of 

 our plate. The leaves of the species illustrated in Heer's Fl. Tert. Helv. 

 (vol. 1, PI. XXX, Fig. 8), are much smaller, and the borders are less prolonged 

 downward, so that the base of the leaf is rounded truncate. Considering 

 the remarkaVde likeness of the leaf of 5". graiidifolta to those described in the 

 Bilin Flora, and the great variety of characters as represented in the figures 

 by various authors, it would seem reasonable to admit the leaf of the Dakota 

 group as representing the same species as that of the Miocene of Europe. 



It is to ])e remarked that the four leaves of Si))ilax f/rmidifolia figured 

 in Unger's Sylloge (pt. 1, PI. ii. Figs. 5-8), are seven-nerved; one (Fig. 7) 

 is five-nerved. Hence, the difi^erence in the form of the leaves and the 

 number of nerves is of no importance, or at least is not specific. Heer^ rep- 

 resents the species by a fine, entire, smaller leaf with five nerves, the lowest 

 short, ascending to the middle; the median long, aerodrome; the other char- 

 acters are also the same as in the leaf from Kansas. 



IIaV)itat: Kansas. 



I Chlor. Protog.^p. 129, PI. XL, Fig. 3. 

 »Flor.a von Bilin, p. 104, PI. vi, FigB. 15, 16. 

 ' Fl. Fobs. Arct., vol. 2, pt. 4, PI. xlv, Fig. 7. 



