F. W. Berry — A Fossil Nutmeg. 211 



Art. XXVI. — A Fossil Nutmeg from the Tertiary of 'Texas / 

 by Edward Wilber Berry. 



The Nutmegs, with somewhat less than 100 existing arid 

 widely distributed tropical forms, constitute the family Myristi- 

 cacese of the order lianales. Satisfactorily determined fossil 

 forms are entirely unknown so that the remains which form 

 the subject of the present paper are not without interest. 



These are found in the Catahoula formation of Trinity 

 County in eastern Texas from which I described the fruits of 

 a date palm some years ago,* and were collected by Charles 

 Laurence Baker. The matrix of this material was the basis 

 for a highly interesting study of the petrography of the Cata- 

 houla 1 sandstone made by M. I. Goldmanf and published in 

 this Journal in 1915. The evidence of the flora and that fur- 

 nished by the study of the sediments supplement one another 

 in throwing considerable light on the physical conditions of 

 Catahoula time which will be referred to on a subsequent page. 



The fossil species of nutmeg, obviously new, is represented 

 by characteristic remains of the pericarp and of the seeds. It 

 may be described as follows : 



Myristica catahoulensis, sp. nov. 



Pericarp broadly ovate, slightly longer than wide, approxi- 

 mately circular in cross section, thick, two-valved, about 5 cm in 

 length and 3 - 75 cra in diameter, enclosing a single large seed. 

 The aril either decayed before fossilization or became separated 

 from tbe seed and was not preserved in the same deposit and 

 the perisperm is likewise missing. The seed is large, circular 

 in cross section, evenly rounded proximad and shows a distinct 

 hilum. It is slightly narrowed and bluntly pointed distad. 

 The surface is ornamented by numerous irregular longitudinal 

 corrugations marking the ruminating endosperm. These mark- 

 ings are in faint relief and much less prominent than the cor- 

 responding markings of the commercial nutmeg, due in a 

 measure to the fact that fossils are all casts in a somewhat 

 porous sandstone. Similar artificial casts of the strongly marked 

 commercial nuts are scarcely to be distinguished from the 

 fossil casts. The nuts, of which several have been found, are 

 about 3 cm in length by l-7 cm in maximum diameter, which is 

 midway between the apex and the base. 



This species is based on the single valve of the pericarp 

 shown in figs. 1-6 and on the partial remains of several nuts, 



* This Journal (4), xxxvii, pp. 403-406, 1914. 

 flbid., xxxix, pp. 261-287, 1915. 



