640 E. W. BERRY CERTAIN PLANT-BEARING BEDS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



ties the fossil plants occur in tuffs/ and there is no evidence of contem- 

 poraneous or subsequent marine deposits in this general region, although 

 it must be constantly borne in mind that the area has been very imper- 

 fectly explored. The flora found near Buga is very limited in extent, 

 and while it is probably the same or very nearly the same age as that 

 found in the Eio Magdalena Valley, this can not be demonstrated. The 

 flora of Eio Magdalena Valley comprises 35 species, well distributed 

 among the natural orders. It is clearly a niesophytic tropical flora and 

 it contains numerous elements that are strictly South American in exist- 

 ing floras. Among these are the genera Stenospermatium, Goeppertia, 

 Acrodiclidium, Condaminea, Vochysia, Trigonia, etcetera. Nine of the 

 Santa Ana species have an outside distribution. Seven of these have been 

 found in Peru, two in Ecuador, and two in Chile. These afford a basis 

 for tentative correlation which mil be referred to in a subsequent para- 

 graph, since the basis for all of the proposed correlations rests on various 

 collateral lines of evidence rather than on direct individual comparisons. 

 Stille^ has described coarse valley filling in the Eio Magdalena Valley 

 which he calls the Honda beds. These may possibly be of the same age 

 as the plant-bearing tuffs, but they are probably much younger and may 

 be considered to represent upper Miocene or Pleistocene continental sedi- 

 ments or possibly both. 



Ecuador 



Fossil plants are known from two principal localities in Ecuador. 

 These are Tablayacu (locality number 4), in the Eio Jubones basin, and 

 several localities in the Loja basin (locality number 5). Only three spe- 

 cies are recorded from the former, but one of these is also found in the 

 Loja basin, and it therefore seems probable that the two deposits are of 

 the same age. The occurrence of lignites and associated leaf impressions 

 in the Loja basin has been known for a generation or longer.^ Engel- 

 hardt^ has described 40 species of fossil plants from this locality, but the 

 age of the beds has never been fixed beyond that they were Tertiary. 

 One of the Loja plants occurs in the Colombia deposits, another in the 

 Caimito formation of the Canal Zone, three are found in Chile, and one 

 in Peru. The flora, judged by modern standards, is distinctly South 

 American in its facies, with species of Arthante, Hieronymia, Cam- 



" H. Engelhardt : Abh. Senck. Naturf. Gesell., Band 19, 1895. 



5 H. Stille : Geologische Studien im Gebiete des Rio Magdalena. von Koenen Fest- 

 schrift, 1907, pp. 277-358. 



6 T. Wolf and G. Rath : Zeits. Deutsch. Geol. Gesell., Bd. 28, 1876, pp. 391-393. 

 ^H. Engelhardt: Abh. Senck. Naturf. Gesell., Bd. 19, 1895. 



