66 
through the dark forests that limit one’s view often to only a 
few rods in any one direction. 
We made various trips from one Indian village to another as 
well as to one or two little-known rivers, including even a journey 
out to La Paz and back over the passes, obtaining some general 
collections of plants over the different routes till a little over a 
year elapsed before again passing through Mapiri on our way 
home. 
R. S. Wiuiams, 
FOSSIL PLANTS FROM KANSAS. 
The Garden has recently acquired by purchase, from Mr$ 
Charles H. Sternberg, of Lawrence, Kansas, a fine collection of 
fossil leaves from the Cretaceous (Dakota Group) sandstone of 
that state. The collection contains twenty-five genera and forty- 
nine species and varieties, included in about 250 specimens, ex- 
clusive of counterparts, of which latter there are a large number. 
They were selected for display in the museum and hence were 
all carefully prepared by shaping the matrix and by chiseling off 
any surface inequalities, wherever this was advisable for the bet- 
ter definition of the leaves. Many are in nodules, which are 
split open and show each leaf in counterparts, or as both impres- 
sion and cast. In nearly every instance the outline, petiole and 
nervation are as perfectly preserved as in herbarium specimens. 
Several of the leaves are folded or bent in a remarkable man- 
ner, apparently having been subjected to the disturbing influence 
of flowing water at the time when they were deposited. One of 
these is shown in the accompanying illustration. 
Although the collection was not designed for other than dis- 
play purposes it was found to include two unique specimens 
which are of special interest, not only on account of their beauty 
as fossils, but also for the reason that they represent objects which 
are rarely preserved and are species new to science. 
One of these is a petal of a Magnolia, similar to the living 
foetida (L..) Sarg. — the other is a fruit of a fig. They were shown 
at the Washington meeting of the Botanical Society of America, 
