484 Systematic Paleontology 



nervis lateralibus snprabasilaribns haud exacte oppositis, subangulo acuto 

 orientibus, ultra medium folium productis, extus ramosis, ramis campto- 

 dromis; nervis secundariis longe a primariis lateralibus remotis^ subangulo 

 aperto emissis, parum numerosis, Camptodromis, nervis tertiariis e nervo 

 mediano et e latere anteriore nervorum lateralium subangulo recto 

 emissis, arcuato-transversis. Bacca pedicello apice incrassato carnosoque 

 imposita, basi perianthii sexpartiti laciniis cincta.'^ 



Like all genera which are monotypic in the existing flora Sassafras 

 has a most interesting geological history. The most ancient forms are 

 the following three species of late Lower Cretaceous age from the Mary- 

 land-Virginia area and a fourth species described by Saporta ^ from the 

 Albian of Portugal. The Upper Cretaceous shows an extensive develop- 

 ment of Sassafras-like forms in Europe, Greenland, and America; the 

 Dakota Group in particular having a large number of species. Although 

 reduced in variet}^ of forms the genus remains cosmopolitan throughout 

 the Tertiary, Sassafras Ferretianum Massal. which is common in the 

 late Pliocene in France and Italy being almost indistinguishable from 

 the single modern species which is confined to eastern North America. 



Sassafeas bilobatum Fontaine 

 Plate XCIII, Fig. 1 



Sassafras Mloiatum Fontaine, 1890, Mon. U. S. GeoL Survey, vol. xv, 1889, 



p. 290, pi. clvi, fig. 12; pi. clxlv, fig. 4. 

 Sassafras Mloiatum Berry, 1902, Bot. Gaz., vol. xxxiv, p. 435. 

 ? Sassafras Mlobatum Fontaine, 1906, in "Ward, Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, 



vol. xlviii, 1905, p. 506, pi. cxi, fig. 5. 



Description. — " Leaf-substance moderately thick ; leaf rather large, 

 elliptical-shaped at base, cut into a rather long lateral lobe, ovate in 

 shape, which is turned away from the midrib, having the opposite side 

 of the leaf gently rounded off; terminal lobe much larger, ovate in shape; 

 midnerve strong, sending off on the right-hand side from near the base 

 and into the lateral lobe a strong nerve, and on the left-hand side from 

 a little higher a smaller one, which curves upward, following the margin 



"■ Saporta, Fl. Foss. Portugal, 1894, p. 182, pi. xxxi, fig. 7. 



