Vol. 3 No. g 



TORREYA 



September, 1903 



LIRIODENDRON NOTES 



By Edward W. Berry 



Fossil Stipules. — In the Botanical Gazette, 34: 57. 1902, I 

 made the statement that fossil stipules of Liriodendron had not 

 been found unless certain remains referred by Newberry, Lesque- 

 reux, and Hollick to Paliurtis were to be so interpreted. I am 

 now convinced that these remains are not those of stipules, 

 although Hollick's //. 2. f. 12, 18, ig. 1892, * are very similar 

 superficially. I find I overlooked certain specimens figured and 

 described by Heer as stipules in connection with Liriodendron 

 Mcekii from Greenland, f His figures are here reproduced (fig. 4) 

 with the comment that they almost certainly represent mid-Cre- 

 taceous (Atane) Liriodendron stipules. 



Seed Dispersal. — Liriodendron seeds are not eaten by mam-* 

 mals or birds, nor have they any means of attaching themselves 

 to the hair of mammals or feathers of birds ; they are too large to 

 be carried in mud-balls or mud-cakes, and their wings at best 

 enable them to navigate just beyond the parent tree, so that the 

 spread of the species has necessarily been comparatively slow. 

 Their only means of crossing intervening water would be by float- 

 ing in currents either attached to detached branches or more 

 probably as individuals. The trees do not inhabit seashores but 

 are common enough along river banks so that a river journey 

 would have to precede an ocean voyage. The carpels remain on 

 the trees until thoroughly dry, usually through the greater part 

 of the winter, falling a few at a time as the winds dislodge them. 



* Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 12. 

 j-Heer, Fl. Foss. Arct. 6 2 : 90. pi. 23. f. S. 1882. 



[Vol. 3, No. 8, of Torreya, comprising pages 1 13-128, was issued August 22, 

 I903-] 



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