blance to the present specimen. It, therefore, appears to represent 

 a hitherto undescribed species. 



By comparison with living species, this specimen was found 

 to match most closely Ephedra nevadensis S. Wats. In many 

 specimens of this species the branchlets are prevailingly in 

 pairs and opposite at the nodes (Fig. 2), though in other speci- 

 mens they are whorled. The branches in leaving the parent 

 stem generally bend sharply upwards, in which case the branch- 

 lets which the branches bear on their concave or adaxial side 

 have shorter basal internodes than those on the abaxial side, 

 closely approximating the condition found in the fossil speci- 



Fig. 1. Photograph of one half of the specimen of 

 Ephedra miocenican. sp X.8. 



men. The fossil is therefore presumably the basal section of 

 probably a secondary or tertiary branchlet. This habit of 

 branching, with the basal internodes of opposite branches of 

 different lengths, is not common among living species of Ephedra 

 and, among the available specimens, was encountered only in 

 E. nevadensis . 



It appears likely that the slender contorted branchlet in 

 the fossil, though not now in organic connection with the rest 

 of the plant, was originally a part of it, probably arising from 

 a lower node. Similar slender branchlets occur in several living 



