E. W. Berry — A Petrified Palm. 195 



are described by Fliche* from a somewhat earlier horizon than 

 either wood or leaves (cenomanien inf erieur) in France (Sainte- 

 Menehould). A number of species of palm based upon the 

 petrified wood are also known from the Upper Cretaceous. All 

 of these with the exception of a single form described recently 

 by Stevensf and coming from a much higher horizon in the 

 Cretaceous than the Cliffwood plant, are confined to European 

 localities, and none of the latter are older and most of them are 

 younger than the Cliffwood form. 



The present material is therefore of considerable interest 

 because* of the rarity of palm wood at such an early horizon, 

 its almost total absence from North America at these horizons, 

 and also because it serves to corroborate the identification of 

 fragmentary leaf-remains in this and synchronous formations — 

 the latter always more common and widespread than wood with 

 structure conserved. 



The Cliffwood material comprises fragments of a trunk of 

 considerable size with an indicated diameter of at least 15 cm. 

 The preservation is not especially good since the wood is fer- 

 ruginized and the tissues have been preserved by their impreg- 

 nation with tiny spherules of limonite. For this reason the 

 following description is somewhat incomplete, but sufficiently 

 detailed to demonstrate the botanical nature of the material 

 and to render possible the identification of any future occur- 

 rences of this form. 



Petrified palm wood has been known since the early days of 

 paleobotany. First described under the term Endogenites, it 

 was afterwards referred to the genus Palmacites, proposed by 

 Brongniart. Schenk, who was a very active student of fossil 

 woods, proposed the comprehensive genus Palmoxylon to 

 include all fossil palm woods since the well known similarities 

 of monocotyledonous anatomy render generic discrimination 

 very difficult, if possible at all in the present state of our 

 knowledge of recent palms. Schenk's genus has been univer- 

 sally adopted by subsequent workers in this field — the two 

 most active of whom have been Felix and Stenzel. The latter 

 author in a relatively modern work (1904) has brought together 

 an account of all fossil palm woods known to him. This is 

 fairly complete, but overlooks the Cretaceous species described 

 by Crie from the Turonian of France.;}: According to the 

 usage just mentioned and because it cannot be demonstrated 

 that the wood represents the same species that is represented 

 by leaves in the Magothy formation, the present form may be 

 described as 



*Fliche, P., Etudes sur la Flore Fossile de l'Argomie, Bull. Soc. Sci. 

 Nancy, pp. 153-196, 1896. 



f Stevens, N. E., this Journal (4), vol. xxxiv, pp. 421-436, 1912. 

 jCrie, L., Bull. Soc. d'Etudes Sci. d'Anvers, xxi, 99, 1892. 



