36 BULLETIN 103, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



middle, about 5 cm. Margins entire, full and rather evenly rounded. 

 Petiolar character unknown. Midrib of medium size, uncharacteris- 

 tic. Secondaries thin, seven or eight opposite to alternate pairs di- 

 verge from the midrib at regular intervals at angles varying from 

 45° in the upper part of the leaf to 55° in the basal part; they ascend 

 in slight but subparallel curves increasing in intensity as they pro- 

 ceed toward the margins with which they become subparallel and 

 eventually camptodrome. Tertiaries thin, mostly obsolete. Leaf 

 substance thin but apparently of a somewhat coriaceous texture. 



The present species receives its name from its supposed praenuntial 

 relationship to the existing Banisteria sinemariensis De Candolle, a 

 form ranging from the West Indies to Brazil and whose somewhat 

 variable leaves may be exactly matched by the fossil. 



The genus contains upward of eighty existing species, mostly 

 climbing shrubs, confined to the American tropics and largely de- 

 veloped in northern South America. Its geological history goes back 

 to the Lower Eocene, a species having been described by Watelet from 

 the Ypresian of the Paris basin and four homotaxial species, one 

 based on seeds, having been described by the writer from the Wilcox 

 group of the Mississippi embayment in Western Tennessee and Ken- 

 tucky. Several additional fossil species have been described from 

 the European Tertiary, from all of which the Panama fossil is 

 conspicuously different, its major differential character being its 

 relatively short and broad outline. 



A species based upon fruits has been described by Engelhardt 1 

 from the Tertiary of Ecuador. 



There are 5 species of Banisteria recorded by Hemsley from Cen- 

 tral America, 3 of these in Panama, B. billbergiana Beurling on the 

 seashore of the island of Manzafiillo. Two additional Panama spe- 

 cies of Banisterm are referred to the allied genus Heteropterys Kunth 

 by Hemsley. 



Occurrence. — Culebra formation. West wall of Gaillard Cut be- 

 low Miraflores locks (collected by M. I. Goldman). Culebra forma- 

 tion (lower). West wall of Canal opposite Culebra Railroad station. 

 (Collected by D. F. MacDonald). 



Family EUPHORBIACEAE. 



Genus HIERONYMIA Allem. 



HIERONYMIA LEHMANNI Engelhardt (7). 



Plate 16, fig. 3. 

 Hieronymia lehmamii Engelhardt, Uber neue Tertiarpflanzen Siid-Ameri- 

 kas, Abh. Senck. Naturf. Gesell., vol. 19, p. 11, pi. 2, figs. 1, 2, 1895. 



Description. — Leaves broadly elliptical or somewhat deltoid and 

 inequilateral in outline, with a shortly acuminate tip and broadly 



1 Engelhardt, H., Uber neue Tertiarpflanzen Siid-Amerikas, Abh. Senck. Naturf. Ge- 

 sellsch., vol. 19, p. 14, pi. 2, figs. 18, 19, 1895. 



