312 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



16. Myrica insignis, sp. nov. 



Leaf membranaceous, large, narrowly-oval or oblong acuminate, pin- 

 nately-lobed ; lobes short, entire, turned upward, triangular-acute; lateral 

 ueins open, slightly curving in passing to the point of the lobes ; tertiary 

 veins nearly as thick as the secondary ones, forking under the acute sinuses 

 of the lobes, the branches ascending along the sides ; areolation large, 

 polygonal, formed by the anastomosis in the middle of. the areas of 

 nervilles at right angle to the veins. There are of this beautiful species 

 two fragments of leaves, indicating the average size of ten centimeters 

 long and four centimeters broad. The point, as in the former species, is 

 entire, and still more rapidly and acutely acuminate; and the lobes, 

 alternate, short, equal and similar, give to this species a beautiful ap- 

 pearance. 



Habitat. — Middle Park, Dr. F. V. Say den. 



17. Myrica ? Lessigiana, sp. nov. 



This species is represented by nearly the half of the leaf, enormous, 

 at least if it belongs to this genus. Leaf linear, oblong in outline, deeply 

 lobed ; lobes ojjposite, ovate-lanceolate, obtusely pointed, at an open 

 angle of divergence, entire, joined at a short distance of the thick mid- 

 dle nerve in obtuse sinuses ; lateral veins thick, subopposite on an 

 open angle of divergence, ascending to the point of the lobes, rami- 

 fied from the middle upward in branches curving to and along the bor- 

 ders ; tertiary veins, variable in thickness, relative position and direction, 

 some forking under the sinuses, and passing upon both sides of it; 

 others traversing the large intervals between the base of the secondary 

 veins and the borders of the lobes, and following the borders in multiple 

 festoons; areolation of the game character as in the former species, the 

 large areolse, however, being subdivided in very small meshes of the 

 same character. 



This magnificent leaf seems of a pellucid texture, though thick ; at 

 least, all the details of areolation and nervation are distinctly perceiv- 

 able in black upon the chestnut-color of the leaf. Though the fragment 

 does not represent one-half of the leaf, the terminal leaflet being de- 

 stroyed, and the base also, still it is twenty-three centimeters long and 

 eighteen centimeters broad, each lobe being nine to ten centimeters 

 long from the middle nerve to the point, and seven and a half centime- 

 ters broad between the sinuses. It is doubtful if this leaf represents, as 

 the former, a species of the section of the Comptonia. It resembles 

 Comptonia grandifolia, Ung., which was till now considered as the giant 

 representative of the section, but whose leaf is scarcely half as large as 

 this. The nervation and areolation of this leaf are of the same char- 

 acter as that of 3[yrica, identical, indeed, to that of ill. Matheronicme Sap., 

 Et. II, 2, p. 93, T. v.. Fig. 7, whose lobes are also of the same form. It 

 is much larger, however, too large it seems for a Myrica. By the form 

 of the leaf it is comparable to Aralia multijida Sas, Et. 1, 1, T. XII, f. 

 1 and l'^, and also but more distantly to Cussonia polydrys Ung., Flora 

 von Euboea, p. 47, T XVII, f. 1. 



Habitat. — Found in connection with abed of lignite west of Denver, 

 Colo., and kindly communicated by Mr. W. H. Lessig, who discovered 

 it, and had the specimen framed in a bedding of plaster. 



18. Betula VoGDESii, sp. nov. 



Leaves small, ovate, acutely-pointed, rounded, and narrowed to the 

 petiole, minutely serrulate, penniuer ve, lateral veins distant, opposite at or 



