FLORA OF THE CHEYENNE SANDSTONE OF KANSAS, 
Order THYMELEALES. 
Family LAURACEAE. 
Genus SASSAFRAS Linné. 
Sassafras mudgii Lesquereux. 
Plate ‘LXI, figure 3. 7 
Sassafras mudgti Lesquereux, Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 
46, p. 99, 1868; U. S. Geol. Survey Terr. Rept., vol. 
6 (Cretaceous flora), p. 78, pl. 14, figs. 3, 4; pl. 30, 
fig. 7, 1874. 
Ward, U.S. Geol. Survey Nineteenth Ann. Rept., pt. 
2, p. 705, pl. 170, figs. 4, 5; pl. 171, fig. 1, 1899. 
Berry, Bot. Gaz., vol. 34, p. 437, 1902. 
?Kurtz, Mus. La Plata Rev., vol. 10, p. 53, 1902. 
According to Newberry, this is merely a 
variety of his Sassafras cretaceum, but I fail 
to see any ground for this association except 
that it resembles somewhat the narrower-lobed 
leaves ascribed to that species. _ It is somewhat 
intermediate between these forms and the 
more typical Sassafras acutilobum but is much 
more like the modern leaf than either. 
quereux’s figures 3 and 4 of Plate XIV of the 
“Cretaceous flora’ I consider to represent 
typical forms of this species. In the lengthen- 
ing of the terminal lobe it approaches the 
modern Sassafras; and it shows no venation 
characters which are unlike the modern leaf, 
for although no marginal veins are discernible, 
they might have been present.in the specimen 
illustrated in Lesquereux’s figure 3, as they are 
in the identical form from the Cheyenne sand- 
stone figured on the accompanying plate, and 
both specimens approach Sassafras in the 
relations of their secondary. members in. this 
region. If it is certain that the fruit has been 
found in the same. strata, as Lesquereux “ 
asserts, it only serves to substantiate the 
impression otherwise obtained that they are 
true Sassafras leaves: ' 
both the base and the lobes are straighter and 
more ascending than in the existing Sassafras, 
and the margin shows a tendency to become 
wavy. Lesquereux’s other figured specimen 
referred to this species differs in the size and 
direction of the lateral lobes, in thé subbasal 
primaries, and in the acute tip; the venation. 
also is somewhat dissimilar, the ascending 
margins bulge outward, and the base is not 
-decurrent on the petiole, as it is most markedly 
in the specimens shown in his figures 3 and 4. 
It resembles somewhat the forms which New- 
%4 Lesquereux, Leo, Flora of the Dakota group, p. 230, 1891 [1892]. 
. Les-. 
The lateral margins of | 
219 
berry refers to Sassafras acutilobum. Ward’s 
| fragmentary leaves from the Black Hills are 
of doubtful identity. .The more perfect speci- 
men that he originally referred to Lindera . 
venusta Lesquereux, which it resembles in 
outline, is a smaller leaf than S..mudgii, with 
subbasal primaries, considerable breadth of 
blade, and reduced terminal lobe. 
_ Sassafras mudgit was based on material col- 
lected from the hills along Saline River in cen- 
tral Kansas. Up to the present time it has 
never been found elsewhere, except for the 
above-mentioned doubtful record by Ward 
_|from the supposed Dakota sandstone at Evans 
quarry, in South Dakota, and a still more 
doubtful South American record by Kurtz 
that may well.be entirely ignored.. It may be 
that the type was from the Mentor formation 
of central Kansas rather than from the true 
Dakota sandstone, as the species has never been 
found in collections from the Upper Cretaceous 
of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, but no outcrops 
of the Mentor formation are known as far north 
as Saline River. 
The Cheyenne sieasibas occurrences are 
Stokes Hill (2220) and near Medicine Lodge 
Creek, 2 miles west of Belvidere (2224). 
Order UMBELLALES. 
Family ARALIACEAE. 
Genus ARALIA Linné. 
Aralia ravniana Heer. 
Plate LVIII; Plate LIX, figure 4. 
Aralia ravniana Heer, Flora fossilis arctica, vol. 6, Abt. 2, 
p. 84, pl. 38, figs. 1,2, 1882. 
Berry, New York Bot. Garden Bull., vol. 3, p. 92, pl. 
46, fig. 7; pl. 53, fig. 2; pl. 57, io: 1, 1903; Torrey 
Bot. Club Bull., vol, 31, p. 79, 1904; vol. 37, p. 27, 
1910; Maryland Geok. Survey, ‘Wpper Cretaceous, p. 
876, pl. 82, fig. 4; pl. 83, figs. 1-4, 1916. 
Aralia peenlienen Heer, idem: pl. 46, fig. 17. 
?Sterculia snowii Hollick, New York Acad. Sci. Annals, 
vol. 11, p. 422, pl. 37, fig. 4, 1898. 
This species was described by Heer from 
material collected in the Greenland Upper 
Cretaceous (Atane beds) and has been found 
by me in the Magothy formation of both New 
Jersey and Maryland. The fragments from 
Marthas Vineyard, Mass.; and Tottenville, 
N. Y., identified as this species by Hollick,®. 
are not this species, in my judgment. There isa 
% Hollick, Arthur, U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 50, p. 99, a 37, figs. 1, 2, 
1907. 
