DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 41 



Order DIOSCOREACE^. 



DiOSCOREA ? CRETACEA Lesq. 



Cret. Fl., p. 56, PI. xxviii, Fig. 10; Cret. and Tert. Fl., p. 34. 



Order BROMELIACE^. 



Tribe BROMELIE>E. 



Bromelia? tenuifolia, sp. nov. 

 PI. I, Fig. 13. 



Leaves apparently long, linear, very gradually narrowed npward, dis- 

 tantly spinous, short-dentate; nerves parallel, thin, close, equal and equi- 

 distant. 



The generic I'eference of such a small fragment of leaf as th;it figured 

 is of course uncertain. Some palms of the genera Acrocomia Mart., Astro- 

 caryum Mever, etc., have their fronds covered Avith spines and the leaves 

 also sometimes bordered Avith spinous teeth; but these are longer, more 

 numerous, and iiregularly placed. The leaves also of some species of 

 Pandanus (P. oniafiis, for example) are spinous on the borders, but they all 

 have a distinct midrib, and thus it seems that the fragment from Kansas is 

 referable to the Bromeliacea;, having a degree of likeness to the leaves of' 

 Bonapartea, cultivated in the gardens, and also in the fossil species Bromelia 

 Gaiidii/i, Heer,^ which may serve as a point of comparison, although the 

 leaves are comparatively narrower, the nervation obsolete, and the spines 

 of the borders much longer and generally at right angles. 



The fragment is 6.5*"" long, 2.5"° broad, marked by 40 piu-allel nerves, 

 15 or 16 in a diameter of 1""', all equal in size and distance. As in tlie leaf 

 of Encephalartos the nerves nearest to the borders enter tliein and i)ass 

 out, forming short acute teeth or spines turned upward. 



Habitat: Ellsworth County, Kansas. No. 46 of tlui museum of the 

 University of Kansas. Collected by A. Wellhigton. 



' Fl. Tert. Helv., vol. I, p. 107, PI. XLix and I.. 



