A representative of the Olacaceae in the Eocene of 

 Southeastern North America 



Edward \V. Bkrry 



In 1930 I described' under the name of Calycites milanensis 

 certain unidentified concrescent calices from the upper part of 

 the Holly Springs sand, which is the middle formation of the 

 Wilcox Eocene group along the eastern shore of the lower 

 Eocene Mississippi Gulf embayment, from a locality 1 mile 

 west of Milan in Gibson County, Tennessee. The associated 

 fossils at this outcrop were seeds of Anona robertsi; pods de- 

 scribed as Legiiminosites astragalijormis ; leaflets of Mimosites 

 variabilis, Canavalia eocenica and Sophora wilcoxiana; and 

 leaves of A pocynophyllum sapindifolium and A. wilcoxense. 



Some months ago Dr. Roland W. Brown sent me specimens 

 of calices of the existing Heisteria acuminata and a leaf of Heis- 

 teria concinna and called my attention to the similarity of the 

 former to Calycites milanensis. I have recently canvassed all of 

 the existing material of Heisteria in the National Herbarium 

 and the conclusion is irresistable that Calycites milanense repre- 

 sents a lower Eocene representative of the genus Heisteria. 



The plants associated with these calices are listed above and 

 it is obvious that the two species ascribed to the genus Apocyn- 

 ophyllum are the only ones worth any consideration in the 

 present connection. 



The leaves of the modern species are somewhat variable even 

 within the limits of a single species such, for example, aiS Heis- 

 teria costaricensis Donnell Smith from Costa Rica, but there are 

 quite a number of species: concinna, costaricensis, flexuosa, etc. 

 with leaves almost identical with those fossil ones named A po- 

 cynophyllum sapindifolium . This species was described from the 

 Wilcox of Louisiana by Hollick in 1899 and in my subsequent 

 work on the Wilcox was discovered at 28 diff^erent localities 

 along both the eastern and western shores of the Eocene em- 

 bayment. 



There can be slight doubt but that these leaves are the 

 leaves of the same botanical species as that which furnished the 

 calices and I feel so sure of this that I propose that both leaves 



1 Berry, E. W. U. S. Geological Survey Prof. Paper 156, p. 142, pi. 49, 

 figs. 6-8, 1930. 



