The name of a fossil Boraginaceous plant 



T. D. A. COCKERELL 



In 1928 (Proc. U. S. National Museum, 73, Art. 13, p. 1) 

 Dr. E. W. Berry published an account of some fossil fruits (nut- 

 lets) from the upper Tertiary of Kansas and Colorado. These 

 he assigned to a species which he called Lithospermum fossilium. 

 But he divided this into three varieties, to each of which he gave 

 a name. The first and most abundant variety, which should be 

 considered the typical form of the species, is named L. fossilium 

 rugosum. In the Science Bulletin of the University of Kansas, 

 xx (1932) pp. 333-367, Mr. Maxim K. Elias has a very inter- 

 esting paper on fossil fruits from the same region. The second 

 and third of Berry's supposed varieties he considers to be grasses, 

 pertaining to a new genus Berriochloa. But the first is truly 

 Boraginaceous, and related to Anchusa. After elaborate study 

 and comparisons, it is made the type of a new genus Biorbia, 

 and appears as Biorbia rugosa. But since Berry gave the name 

 L. fossilium to the species, this cannot be suppressed, and surely 

 we must write Biorbia fossilia (Berry) . 



Boulder, Colo. 



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