FROM THE TKUTIARY OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 



417 



lied shale. 



These leaves are likely acute or short acuminate. Their unequal round base resembles 

 that of leaflets of a compound leaf. But I do not know of any having like form of leaves 

 and such a peculiar nervation. Celtis Mismsippiensis, Bosc, of our times, most resembles 

 the fossil species. Its leaves are longer, indeed, and proportionally narrower ; but espe- 

 cially at the base of the branches, leaves are casually short and broad. The base is une- 

 qual and rounded, and the secondary nervation and ultimate reticulation similar to that 

 of our fossil leaves, marked Fig. 5 a. 



13. Ficus Sohimperi, Spec. nov. PI. xviii, Figs. 1, 2, 3. F. foliis membranaceis, ovato lancoolatis, acumi- 

 natis, basi rotundatis vol subtruncatis, integris, undulatis, tri subquinque nerviis, imcqualibus ; ncrvis seoundariis 

 oainptodromis, nervulis distantibus, continuis. 



Red shale. 



These fine leaves are the most numerous and best preserved of the specimens from 

 Mississippi. Numerous as they are, nevertheless, no trace of a petiole is seen on any of 

 them, though they were evidently stalked. Their general form is ovate acuminate, with 

 round base, and entire, more or less undulate borders. The two inferior pairs of the 

 secondary nerves are generally not far distant from each other ; sometimes, as in the large 

 leaf, Tig. 3, they become nearly connected, and the basilar trinervation becomes a five- 

 compound nervation. This peculiarity, more marked still in other of these fossil leaves, 

 seems to indicate the identity of both Ficus truncate, and Ficus Rumiuiana, Ileer, to which 

 our species is related. For the essential difference between them is the quinque-nerva- 

 tion of the first and the trinervation of the second. In our species the angle of divergence 

 of the secondary nerves is more acute, the veins and veinlets more deeply marked, these 

 being continuous and forming broader areas, subdivided into an ultimate minute irregu- 

 larly quadrate reticulation, as in a, Fig. 1. 



14. Fious Cinnamomoides, Spec. nov. PI. xvii, Fig. 8, F. foliis late ovafcis, basi rotundatis, integerrimis, 

 irresnilariter trinerviis: nervo medio arouato, nervis sccundariis orassis. augulo acuto sirm obtuso egredientibus, 

 subtus ramosis. 



Soft white clay. 



If this leaf, represented by one broken specimen only, is, as it seems, pointed or acu- 

 minate, it has some likeness to Ficus Tiliaifoiia, Ileer, as it is figured, Flor. Tert. Helvet., 

 PI. lxxxiii, Fig. 3. Its nervation presents a kind of anomaly in this : that being unequally 

 tricompound at the base, the secondary nerves branch in the same way as they do in this 

 genus when the basilar nervation is in five. The secondary nerves unite to the arched 

 medial one by a small obtuse sinus. The form of the leaf is about round, with perfectly 

 entire borders. 



VOL. XIII. — 53 



