ARTICLE XIV. 



ON SPECIES OF FOSSIL PLANTS FROM THE TERTIARY OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 



HV LEO LESQUEREUX. 



With Ten Plates. 



The specimens of fossil plants described and figured in this memoir were collected and 

 sent to me for examination, a few years ago, by Prof. Eug. W. Hilgard, State Geologist of 

 Mississippi. A short account of these plants has been already published in the first 

 volume of his lleport.* The examination was then commenced, and has been interrupted 

 and put aside until now, by unforeseen circumstances. 



These remains of leaves are mostly preserved in a kind of hard, red, ferruginous, more 

 or less laminated shale. A few of them are imbedded in a soft whitish clay ; some others 

 in a darker yellowish coarser clay, and one species in a coarse brown sandstone. As the 

 geological and geographical distribution of the deposits where these plants have been 

 found will be examined hereafter, I have merely indicated, after the description of each 

 species, the color of the stone with which it is connected. 



1. Oalamopsis Danat, Lesqx. J'l. xiv, Pig. 1, 2, 3. C. foliis magnis, frondosis, pinnatis; pinnis gramineis, 

 planis oppositis, scquidistantibus, basi subattenuatis; ncrvis primariis 3-5 acopialibus, scoundariis utiicis, graeiliori- 

 bus linoalcs areas dividentibus, nervulis minimis, parallelibus, approximates, notatas. 



Yellow coarse clay. 



A figure of this beautiful palm is given by Prof. Jas. D. Dana in his Manual of Geology, 

 page 513, Fig. 95. The leaflets or pinnae are somewhat narrowed at the base, as seen in 

 Fig. 2. In Fig. 1, they seem to be slightly decurrcnt on the rachis, an appearance due 

 to some deformation by the process of petrification. These leaflets are ribbon-like, and 

 it seems, pretty long. Near the base of the frond they are about one inch broad, with 

 Ave to seven primary nerves, while in the upper part their breadth is but one-fourth of 

 an inch, marked only by three to five primary nerves. The spaces or areas between these 

 nerves are divided in the middle by a secondary vein, less marked than the primary ones, 



* Report on the Geology and Agriculture of the State of Mississippi, by Eug. W. Hilgard, Pr. D. (1860), pages 

 108, 109, &o. 



