DESCRIPTION OP SPECIES. Ift? 



declining at base in joining- the midrib, caraptodrome, only one passing to 

 the apex of the single lateral tooth. 



The authority for the reference of these two leaves to Pterospermites 

 is their extraordinary likeness to a Pterosperiimm undetermined, and 1'. 

 stiherifolmm Willd., figured on PI. xlix, Figs. 6, 9 of Ettingshausen's 

 Blattskelete der Dikotyledonen. The specimen represents a whole ovate 

 leaf, 16.5"'" long to the base of the long acumen (there destroved), T""" V)road 

 below the middle, with h thick petiole 3..')'"" long and 2°"" broad. The large 

 leaf is superposed upon a fragment of another of the same species, turned 

 and flattened in an opposite direction, and of which the long acumen is 

 preserved, it being at its base 1.5"" broad and only 5""" in diameter 4'^"' above 

 the base. This fragment has also a high lateral lobe, or a tooth formed by 

 one of the secondaries passing upward to its sharply pointed apex. 



Tliough the areolation of these leaves is comparable to species of 

 Pterospernuun, they may be compared to species of Ficus l^y their peculiar 

 nervation and the prolongation of the acumen, as seen in i^. snperstit/o.sii.sh., 

 and the beautiful F. producta L. 



Habitat: Near Fort Harker, Kansas No. 2742 of the National Museum. 



Protophyllum Leconteanum Lesq. 

 PI. XL, Fig. 1. 



Cret. Fl., p. 103, PI. xvii, Fig. 4; PI. yxvi, Fig. 1 ; Cret. and Tert. Fl., p. 89. 



Leaves coriaceous, very large, round or reniform in outline, broader 

 than long, round peltate at base; borders entire or obscurely undulate; 

 primary nerve thick; secondaries strong, a little curved, flexuous in passing 

 toward the borders, ramose; nervilles thick, at right angles, mostly simple, 

 anastomosing with veinlets of a lower degree, composing by ramification a 

 distinct j)olygonal areolation. 



The largest part of a leaf of this species has been carefulh" figured in 

 order to fix the characters of the species vaguely indicated b^' the fragment 

 in Cret. Fl. (loc. cit.). 



B}^ a study of this leaf the diff"erences between P. Lccontranxm and P. 

 Sternhorgii Sire clearly brought out. The leaves of the fii'st of these species 

 differ at first by their verv thick texture; then they are not acute at apex but 

 rounded, and the upper part of the pedicel, which appears to be ver^' long, 

 is covered by a large pelta, traversed by strong secondarv nerves, diverging 

 around from the base of the midrib. In P. Sternbcrgii the secondaries are 

 less ramose, the branches being mostly simple, while in P. Leconteanum they 



