LESQUEREUX. 



TEETIARY FLORA. 483 



populoides, sp. nov., has the leaves much smaller, 10 centimeters broad 

 toward the lower part, with the same length from the top of the petiole 

 to the point. They are largest toward the base, which is nearly truncate 

 or merely inclined to the petiole, gradually narrowed toward the obtuse 

 point, where they .are cut into two terminal lobes by a narrowlv oval 

 division, descending to the half of the lamiuce or lower, where they are 

 united in an obtuse sinus. The two upper secondary nerves pass on 

 both sides under it, and become effaced by branching near the upper 

 borders. In this species, all the secondary nerves— three or four pairs, 

 according to the size of the leaves — arecamptodrome, curving along the 

 border, and effaced, as in leaves of Pojndus. The petiole is long, 3 to 3^ 

 centimeters, flattened, and enlarged at its base. Though related by 

 their medial division to those of Liriopliyllum Beckwithii, these leaves 

 have not so close an affinity to them that they may be considered as 

 the same species. 



The characters of these two species are not comparable to those of 

 any of the present flora, to my knowledge at least. They represent an 

 original Cretaceous type, which is found also represented in a different 

 manner by a species of Moletin Cliondrophyllum grandidentatuni, Heer, 

 Mtingshausenia grandidentata, Stiehler, whose leaves are narrowly cunei- 

 form to the petiole, enlarging upward, and split from the top to below 

 the middle by a split in acute angle of the midrib, which forms the bor- 

 ders. 



Another Cretaceous type represented by the leaves from Mr. Beckwith, 

 and worth remarking upon, is a branch of Sequoia^ with leaves as large 

 as those of 8. longifolia, Lesqx., Tert. Flora, p. 79, pi. vii, fig. 14; also 

 somewhat similar in shape, but largest in the middle, 5 millimeters 

 broad, and gradually narrowed to the decurrent base 1 to 1^ millimeters. 

 The branch is narrow, only 1^ millimeters thick, and does not show any 

 scar of leaves. This species has also an affinity, though more distant, 

 to Sequoia Sinittii, Heer, of the Greenland Lower Cretaceous flora. 



TERTIARY. 



Of the Eocene specimens communicated by Rev. Lakes, I have re- 

 marked already in the Tert. Flora, p. 53, on a beautiful, well-preserved 

 leaflet of Pteris erosa, on one part of a splendid pinna of Osmunda 

 affinis, p. 60, and on numerous specimens of a Myrica, intermediate be- 

 tween M. insignis and M. Lessigii, p. 136. In the collections of the same 

 contributor there is a number of specimens of pinnae or leaflets of a ])ecu- 

 liar Palm, whose relation to any living species is as yet unascertained. 

 These leaflets are oval, pointed, largest in the middle, narrowed in the 

 same degree to the acute point and to the base, averaging 17 centime- 

 ters in length and 6 centimeters wide in the middle, sharply plaited 

 and carinate, like Sabal leaves. The rays converging to the base and 

 to the point have each of their faces distinctly nerved with three pri- 

 mary nerves and four secondary, thinner, intermediate ones. The i^elative 

 position of the leaflets to the rachis is not ascertained ; they are all de- 

 tached, mostly fragments. By their forms, they may be compared to 

 those of a Desmoncus, like D. macrocantJms, Mart. ; but, plaited and cari- 

 nate as they are, this relation of form merely cannot be considered. 



I have also mentioned in the Tertiary Flora some specimens communi- 

 cated by Prof. W. A.Brownell, and described one of the\ea.yQS as, Fraxinus 

 Brownellii, p. 230. This year, from numerous specimens received from 

 the same locality, I am able to complete a diagnosis rendered somewhat 

 uncertain by the peculiar form of the leaflet, the only one which I had 



