24 



resent Carex, but similar fruits are present in some of the modern 

 species of both Scirpus and Cyperus, to the one or the other of 

 which I am convinced that these fossils belong. 



Smilax (?) sp. Figs. 10-13 



There are a number of specimens of a small globular berry, 

 about 4 millimeters in diameter, preserved in a more or less 

 flattened condition. After extended comparisons with recent 

 material I believe them to represent the genus Smilax, although 

 it must be admitted that this cannot be conclusively demon- 

 strated. The most similar fruits among existing species are those 

 of Smilax rotundifolia Linne and Smilax lanceolata Linne, al- 

 though unusually small fruited specimens of Smilax walteri 

 Pursh are also similar. All three occur in western Tennessee at 

 the present time, the first ranging from southern Canada to the 

 Gulf of Mexico, the second from Virginia to Arkansas and south- 

 ward, and the third from New Jersey to Tennessee and southward 

 The last is the only one of the three especially characteristic of 

 swamps and wet pine lands. There is no evidence that the 

 Pleistocene environment here was swampy, and my impression 

 is that the fossils are closest to Smilax lanceolata, a dry woods 

 type in the existing flora. 



Brasenia schreberi Gmelin. Figs. 1-4 



Brasenia peltata Pursh. Penhallow, Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 1 : 326. 



1890. 

 Brasenia purpurea (Michx.) Caspary. Coleman, Idem., 26: 247. 



1915: Berry, Jour. Geol. 25: 662. 1917; 9th Ann. Fla. Geol. 



Survey 26. 191 7. 



Our American water shield, a denizen of slow streams and 

 ponds, is now usually given the above name, which we owe to 

 Gmelin. It is considered to be the same as Brasenia peltata of 

 Pursh and Brasenia purpurea (Michx.) Caspary. Its seeds are 

 the most abundant fossils in this deposit, and they are indistin- 

 guishable from the seeds in existing material They have been 

 previously recorded from Ontario and Florida, and are interest- 

 ing in the present instance in that they show that these clays 

 were probably accumulated in a pond. Similar seeds have been 

 recorded throughout the European Tertiary, and they are ex- 



