346 J. S. Newberry — JRhcetie Plants from Honduras. 



Taeniojoteris, viz : T. multinervis "Weiss, T. Eckardi Germ, 

 etc. More and better specimens must, however, be obtained 

 from Honduras before the relations of these plants can be 

 accurately determined. 



Micephalartos ? denticulatus, n. sp. Fig. 5. 



Size of frond unknown, rachis smooth or finely striated 

 longitudinally ; pinnules diverging at an angle of about 45°, 

 lanceolate, 30 min long by 6 mm wide, acute, gradually narrowed 

 to the point, abruptly narrowed at the base which is attached 

 by its entire breadth ; margins set with numerous, spiny teeth ; 

 nerves fine, mostly parallel, somewhat radiate from the base 

 and many terminating in the teeth of the margin. 



Of this remarkable cycad only a single specimen has yet 

 come into my hands. This is a fragment apparently from the 

 middle of a frond showing three complete pinnules and the 

 bases of two others. Its general characters are well shown in 

 the figure. So far as known this is the first instance of the 

 discovery of a cycad with denticulated pinnules in American 

 Mesozoic rocks, and among foreign cycads only a group of 

 species of Sphenozamites have pinnules with toothed margins. 

 It is not uncommon to see this character in living cycads, par- 

 ticularly in Eneephalartos and Zamia. In the latter genus 

 the nerves are parallel and terminate in closely approximated 

 marginal teeth or notches toward the upper extremity. In the 

 former genus, however, forms occur which are almost exactly 

 like those presented by the fossil under consideration, viz : 

 fronds bearing pinnules obliquely inserted, contracted at the 

 base, lanceolate in outline, having fine mostly parallel nerves 

 and margins set with spiny teeth, e. g., Eneephalartos Alten- 

 steinii Lehmann, Cape of Good Hope. This correspondence in 

 the form of the pinnules is so close that I felt warranted in 

 placing our fossil provisionally in the genus Eneephalartos. 

 The fructification will of course be necessary for a demonstra- 

 tion of generic identity and has not yet been obtained. 



Only one fossil species of Eneephalartos has yet been de- 

 scribed and that is E. Gorceixianus Saporta, from the Miocene 

 Tertiary of Koumi, Greece. This has lanceolate, acute entire 

 pinnules, two inches long, somewhat constricted at the base 

 and slightly decurrent'; nerves parallel. It is supposed to 

 represent an extinct species of Encephalartos similar to E. 

 Lehmani of South Africa, but the similarity between these 

 fossil species is scarcely as great as between the plant under 

 consideration and E Altensteinii Lehm., with which I have 

 compared it. 



