FLORA OF THE SHASTA FORMATION. 265 



Four specimens of a conifer that agrees exactly with Sphenolepidium 

 Sternbergianum (Dunk.) Heer were found at locality No. 17, which is 

 probably in the lower part of the Horsetown beds. 



The most complete specimen is that given in PI. LXIX, Fig. 7. 

 It represents a small portion of a penultimate branch, with a part of an 

 ultimate twig attached. The ultimate twig is pretty well preserved 

 and, with the help of a lens, shows quite distinctly the characteristic 

 leaves of S. Sternbergianum. It seems to have been rare. 



Class ANGIOSPERM.E. 



Subclass D I C O T Y L E D N E S . 



Order SALICALES. 



Family SALICACE^. 



Genus SALICIPHYLLIIM Conwentz.« 



Saliciphyllum pachyphyllum Fontaine n. sp. 



PL LXIX, Fig. 8. 



A single specimen of a leaf resembling a Salix was found at locality 

 No. 23 in the same beds with the Menispermites described below. The 

 specimen shows a nearly entire leaf. It is of small size and broadly 

 elliptical in shape, narrowing gradually to the base and apex. The 

 midnerve is distinct and strong, but no other nerves are visible. The 

 texture of this seems to have been leathery and remarkably thick. It 

 is probably owing to this dense consistency that no subordinate nerva- 

 tion is shown. The plant seems to be a new species. In some points 



« It is necessary to credit this name — itcannot be called agenus — to Conwentz, who.in 1886, described it as 

 follows: "Novum genus omnia folia fossilia salicibus recentibus siraillima amplectens" (Die Flora des Bern- 

 steins, etc., von H. R. Goppert und A. Menge, nach deren Hinscheiden selbstiindig bearbeitet and fortgesetzt 

 von H. Conwentz, zweiter Band, Danzig, 1886, p. 43), and fully treated one species, S. succinenum Convv. 

 Three years later appeared Professor Fontaine's Potomac Flora, in which, p. 302, he describes Saliciphyllum as 

 a new genus. Although he gives it a definite character as "leaves . . . elongate-elliptical in outline, with 

 midnerves strong at base and much attenuated toward the summit: lateral nerves slender, the primaries 

 going off very obliquely and curving strongly toward the summit of the leaf, continuing approximately parallel 

 with the margin, but gradually approaching it;" still he says that "in the nervation, so far as it could be made 

 out, and in the shape of the leaves, they appear to be nearer Salix than any other genus," and it is evident that 

 his idea was practically the same as that of Conwentz, viz, to group together all the leaves that closely resembled 

 those of the living willows. If it were necessary to regard Fontaine's genus as distinct from that of Conwentz 

 it would also be necessary to rename it, and rather than do this it seems better to retain the name and credit it 

 to the author who first used it.^L. F. W. 



