FLORA OF THE SHASTA FORMATION. 267 



Order PROTEALES. 



Family PROTEACEiE. 



Gemis PROTE.EPIIYI.LUM Fontaine. 



Prote^phyllum californicum Fontaine n. sp. 



Pl.LXIX, Fig. 11. 



Two specimens of what seems to be an archaic form of dicotyledon 

 were found at locality No. 18, in the upper part of the Knoxville or 

 Aucella beds. The specimens are small fragments which are not suffi- 

 cient to give any idea of the form, size, and shape of the leaf of which 

 they are a part. 



The fragment shown in PI. LXIX, Fig. 11, seems to have come 

 from the margin of the leaf. It shows a principal nerve, probably not 

 principal of the leaf, which seems to have run, in the part displayed, 

 parallel with the margin of the leaf. This nerve sends off branches 

 nearly or quite at right angles with itself, and bends sharply at the 

 point where the branch is given off, so that it is flexuous in its course. 

 In the specimen figured these nerves in most cases make angles some- 

 what greater than right angles with the principal, but this seems due 

 to a slight distortion, for in the other specimen they go off at right angles. 

 The nerves of the second order on the specimen seem to have united 

 to form loose or stragghng and irregularly shaped quadratic meshes. 

 This sort of nervation is similar to that of the old types of dicotyledons 

 found by me in the lowest Potomac beds of Virginia," which were 

 grouped under the generic name Protesephyllum. At the same time 

 it should be stated that this type of leaf is much like the forms called 

 Dictyophyllum by some authorities. These are, in my opinion, archaic 

 and synthetic types of dicotyledons. Schenk has described a leaf of 

 this tj^pe " from the Wealden of Hanover with the name Dictyophyllum 

 Roemeri. 



There is not enough material to determine positively whether or 

 not this California plant is a new species. It is quite possible that it 

 may be identical with some of the Potomac forms. 



« Monogr. U. S. Geol. Surv., Vol. XV, pp. 281-282. 



6 Die Foss. Flor. der Nordwestdeutsch. Wealdenform., p. 22, pi. x, fig. 3 (Palaeontographica, Vol. XIX, 

 p. 224, pi. xxxi, fig. 3). 



