350 GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



ters long from the point where the base joins the petiole to tbe top of a 

 large lateral lobe preserved in fnll ; its base narrowed in a curve, and 

 decurrent. It is deeply divided in six narrow oblanceolate lobes nar- 

 rowed toward the sinuses, dentate from the luiddle upward, the lower 

 lateral ones nearly entire ; the middle ones twelve centimeters long, 

 tw^o centimeters broad in the middle, and only one centimeter near the 

 sinuses. The distance between the points of the external lobes is nine 

 to ten centimeters. The primary lateral nerve on one side forks twice 

 and therefore forms three divisions or lobes, while on the other side it 

 forks once only, and therefore has two divisions, and thus the leaf is 

 six-lobed, though the normal division of the leaves is by five. Though 

 thickish, they are of a rather membranaceous consistence and smooth. 

 The lateral veins, though obsolete, appear very thin, distributed about 

 as in the following species, but on a broader angle of divergence and 

 more curved in j)assing up to the borders. From the base of the lobes 

 downward no trace of nervation is observed. \ 



Habitat. — Near Fort Harker, Kansas, Chs. Sternberg. 



Aealia saportanea, sp. nov. PI. I, figs. 2 and 2^ 



Leaves palmately five-lohed to above the middle^ riarrowed in a curve or 

 broadly cuneate to a long, slender petiole, fan-shaped ifi outline; lobes of 

 different size, lanceolate, obtusely pointed, distantly dentate ; nervation 

 craspedodrome. 



The leaves are variable in size, from nine to eighteen centimeters long 

 "without the petiole, and from nine to twenty centimeters broad between 

 the points of the external lobes ; lobes lanceolate, gradually tapering to 

 an obtuse point, distantly obtusely dentate; the lateral ones gradually 

 shorter than the middle one, which, in the largest of our specimens, is 

 twelve centimeters long from the point to the obtuse sinuses; leaves 

 three-nerved froui the base; lateral nerves forking once, and lateral 

 lobes oblique at an acute angle of divergence. The nervation and areo- 

 lation are perfectly distinct in all the specimens, and its characters 

 identical ; the secondary veins, at an acute angle of divergence of thirty 

 degrees, curve in passing u}) to the borders, where they enter the teeth, 

 and are then craspedodrome, while the lower ones more generally follow 

 the entire border base of the lobes; the nervilles are strong, nearly 

 continuous, branching at right augle, and forming by this kind of divi- 

 sion small square or equilateral areolae. 



The leaves whi<;h represent this species are of a beautiful and elegant 

 jjattern ; the small ones still more finely shaped by the distribution of 

 the lobes, which are acutely i)ointed, and at a more open angle of dis- 

 tribution toward each other. They represent, perhaps, a different 

 species: but I could not find a persistent and distinct character, neither 

 in the form nor in the nervation, to separate them. By the texture, 

 which though thickish is not membranaceous, by the form of the 

 broader lobes not narrowed toward the sinuses, by the distinct nerva- 

 tion, the point of union of the primary nerves at the non-decurrent base 

 of the leaves, the species is evidently different from the former, though, 

 found at the same locality. The relation of these Aralia leaves to the 

 Sassafras {Araliopsis), especially to S. mirahile, is easily remarked ; 

 there is, however, a great difference in the characters of nervation and 

 areolation, clearly j:»erceivable in comparing our fig. 2^ with the leaves 

 in Oret. Flora, PI. XI, fig. 1, and PI. XII, fig. 1. The habitat of these 

 Aralia species shows once more the peculiar grouping of leaves of 

 same or analogous characters in a same locality. Aralia quinquepartita 

 and A. Saportanea are from the south of Fort Harker, Kansas, while the 



