478 Systematic Paleontology 



Occurrence. — Patapsco Formation. Federal Hill (BaltimoTe), 

 Vinegar Hill, Maryland. 



Collections. — U. S. National Museum, Goucher College. 



Celastrophyllum acutidens Fontaine 

 Plate LXXXIX 



CelastropTiyllicm acutidens Font., 1890, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. xv, 1889, 



p. 305, pi. clvi, fig. 8. 

 Celastrophyllum obtusidens Font., 1890, IMd., 1889, p. 305, pi. clvi, fig. 5. 

 Myrica drookensis Fontaine, 1890, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. xv, 1889, p. 



310, pi. cl, fig. 11; pi. clvi, fig. 10. 

 Celastrophyllum pulchrum Ward, 1899, 19tli Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., 



pt. ii, 1899, p. 706, pi. clxxi, figs. 3, 4. 

 Myrica brookensis Fontaine, 1906, in Ward, Mon. U. S. Geol. Surv., vol. 



xlviii, 1905, p. 513, pi. cviii, fig. 8. 

 Celastrophyllum acutidens Font, 1906, in Ward, Ibid., vol. xlviii, 1905, p. 



529, pi. cxiii, figs. 7, 8. 



Description. — Leaves ovate-elliptical in outline, varying considerably 

 in size and relative proportions, ranging from 2.5 cm. to 6 cm. in length 

 and from 1.5 cm. to 4 cm. in width. Margin irregularly toothed, crenate- 

 dentate or shallowly rounded, directed slightly forward and obsolete 

 toward the base of the leaf. Petiole comparatively long and very stout. 

 Midrib also stout, more or less flexuous, diminishing rapidly toward the 

 apex of the leaf. Secondaries generally in four or five alternate pairs, 

 diverging at an angle of about 45° and running with a slight upward 

 curve and somewhat irregularly three-fourths of the distance to the 

 margin where they turn sharply upward to join a lateral fork of the 

 secondary next above, sending off tertiary lateral branches which loop 

 along the margin and from which branches enter the marginal teeth. 

 Characteristic of the type of venation usually ascribed to Celastrophyllum. 



These leaves are all more or less fragmentary, usually lacking the apex 

 or base, or portions of the margin, as if they had been submerged a 

 considerable time before fossilization. They are also rather contorted 

 and fractured by the settling or creep of the arenaceous clay «iatrix. 



This is one of the characteristic species of the Patapsco formation 

 and is very abundant at the Fort Foote locality but has not been found 



