DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIES. 23 



Taxodium occidentale Newb. 



PL XXVI, figs. 1-3; LV, fig. 5, in part.? 



Boston Journ. Nat. Hist., Vol. VII (1863), p. 576; Ann. N. Y. Lye. Nat. Hist., Vol. 

 IX (April, 1S68), p. 45; Ills. Cret. and Tert. PL (1878), PL XI, figs. 1-3. 



"Branchlets terete, leaves numerous, crowded, generally opposite, 

 sessile, or very short petioled, one-nerved, flat, rounded at both ends." 



Branchlets terete, leaves distichous, sessile on very short petioles; one- 

 nerved, flat, rounded at both ends, the larger ones 4 centimeters wide by 

 20 centimeters long, the shorter ones elliptical, scarcely longer than wide. 1 



The characters and variations of the foliage of this plant are very well 

 shown in the figures given of it. From these it will be seen that the leaves 

 are unusually broad for their length, are distinctly rounded at both ends, 

 are sessile or very short petioled, and are not at all decurrent. Some of 

 them are also very short, the shortest almost circular, and they are borne 

 on the secondary as well as tertiary branchlets. 



In the notice of these leaves in The Later Extinct Floras they were 

 compared with those of Taxodium dubium Heer, and it was stated that it 

 differed from that species in having a larger number of leaves, less obliquely 

 set on the branches, with rounded extremities, whereas in the foreign species 

 the leaves are lanceolate in outline and acute at both ends. In his later works 

 Professor Heer has expressed the opinion that Taxodium dubium is only a 

 form of T distichum, now living in our Southern States. This view has been 

 generally accepted by fossil botanists, and the plants under consideration 

 must be compared with the deciduous cypress. In looking over the large 

 number of specimens which I have received from various localities I find 

 that many of them can not be distinguished from the leaves of the living 

 cypress. This is true of collections made by Professor Dana at Birch Bay, 

 by Rev. Thomas Condon at Currant Creek, Oregon, and by Dr. Hayden in 

 the lignite Tertiaries of the upper Missouri River. The specimens now 

 figured, however, obtained by Dr. Hayden on the Yellowstone and Dr. 

 Cooper in northern Montana, exhibit characters which would seem to be 

 sufficient to separate them from the deciduous cypress, the leaves being 

 relatively much broader and rounded at both ends. 



1 In addition to the original published description, as quoted, the above subsequent manu- 

 script description is also included. — A. H. 



