256 Berry — New Cretaceous Bauhinia from Alabama. 



Art. XX. — A New Cretaceous Bauhinia from Alabama ;* 

 by Edward W. Berry. 



In a recent note in Torreyaf a new Cretaceous Bauhinia, 

 was described from the Magothy formation of Maryland, and 

 the writer at that time took occasion to call attention to the 

 various fossil species, seven in all, ascribed to this genus of 

 the Csesalpiniacese with their respective ages. Still more 

 recently Cockerell has described % an additional species from 

 the Florissant, Colorado, shales which he calls Bauhinia 

 pseuclo cotyledon. While the genus is known from both the 

 Cretaceous and the Tertiary of Europe, no Tertiary species had 

 heretofore been described from North America, although the 

 Cretaceous forms are exceedingly well marked and characteris- 

 tic. The species described by Cockerell is not as characteristic 

 either in outline or venation as might be desired and should 

 possibly be compared with other genera of the Caesalpiniaceas 

 or Mimosacese ; at the same time its relations are sufficiently 

 obvious to indicate the presence of a warm temperate element 

 in the Florissant flora. Lesquereux insisted that these deposits 

 which Cockerell calls late Miocene were the same age as the 

 Green River shales, a position no longer tenable ; and in this 

 connection it is interesting to recall that they were originally 

 called Pliocene by Dr. A. C. Peale. 



The occasion for the present note, however, is furnished by 

 the discovery of a large and striking species in the Tuscaloosa 

 formation of Alabama which may be characterized as follows : 



Bauhinia aldbamensis sp. nov. 



Bilobate leaves of medium and large size, 8 cm to 15 cm in 

 greatest length by ll cm to 18 cm in greatest breadth. Medial 

 sinus rather broad and rounded, reaching two-thirds of the dis- 

 tance toward the base or even more. Lobes somewhat reni- 

 form in outline, sublobate, rounded above and with three 

 broadly rounded sublobes on the outer side, the entire margin 

 curving upward and inward from the lower and largest lobe 

 to the truncate or deeply cordate base, which appears to be 

 slightly peltate in some specimens. Midrib comparatively 

 slender, l*7 cm to 3' cm in length, running to the base of the 

 medial sinus and sending off two branches in its upper part, 

 one on each side, which curve upward parallel with the inner 

 margin to join inwardly directed branches from the lateral 

 primaries. Main lateral primaries stout, sending two or three 



* Published by permission of the Director, U. S. Geol. Surv. 

 f Berry, Torreya, vol. viii, p. 218, 1908. 

 X Cockerell, ibid., vol. ix, p. 184, 1909. 



