244 E. W. Berry— A Fossil Nutmeg. 



to me. I have, however, preferred to refer the fossil to Myri- 

 stica since comparative recent material for closer discrimina- 

 tion is lacking. The nutmeg of commerce belongs to the sec- 

 tion Eumyristica with about 15 existing species of the Asiatic 

 tropics. It is a small tree, endemic in the Moluccas and has 

 long been under cultivation judging both from the numerous 

 varieties extant and the historical records, since Europe has 

 been receiving nutmegs from this region, beginning with the 

 trade through the Arabs in the 6th century. The nutmeg has 

 been introduced into other East Indian islands as well as on 

 Bourbon, Mauritius, Madagascar and in tropical America, 

 usually with indifferent success. ' 



While the Texas fossil is much like the commercial nutmeg 

 in size and characters it is also similar to existing American 

 species, of which there are about 25. These are mainly South 

 American, but the sections or genera Virola Aublet and 

 Compsoneura De Candolle both occur also in Central America. 

 The fossil nuts are remarkably like those of Myristica (Comp- 

 soneura) costaricensis Warburg, but the pericarp is much 

 larger and more massive. 



Beyond the fact that they are tropical I know little regard- 

 ing the habitat of the recent species. Many are certainly 

 insular and coastal forms, their range in the Pacific extending 

 eastward to the Fiji, Tonga and Samoan islands, the former 

 having 4 or 5 species. Schimper records 4 species in his Indo- 

 malayan strand flora. Myristica suhcordata Blume of New 

 Guinea and Myristica littoralis Miquel of Java are both mem- 

 bers of Barringtonia or beach-jungle association. Both Gaudi- 

 chand and Guppy record unopened Myristica fruits in the 

 Pacific sea-drift although their floating powers are not great 

 and they are normally dispersed by fruit pigeons (Moseley, 

 Hemsley, Guppy). 



Preferring to the foliage it may be noted that contrary to the 

 opinion of Hooker and Thomson (Flora Indica), DeCandolle 

 found that the flowers and fruits were much alike throughout 

 the family and that the leaves furnish the most useful char- 

 acters for differentiation, especially in their venation, and this 

 opinion was also shared by Miquel. It would seem that the 

 lack of comparative material has hitherto prevented the recog- 

 nition of fossil foliage of Myristica. Certainly no definite evi- 

 dence of extinct species has heretofore been published although 

 the distribution of the existing species in tropical Asia, Africa 

 and America is convincing enough evidence that the group 

 had an extensive, even if unknown, Tertiary history. The 

 only previously known fossil records are based on a very few 

 and indifferently characterized leaf impressions from the Mio- 

 cene of Labuan (Borneo) described by Geyler* as Myristicophyl- 



*Geyler, Vega Exped., vol. iv, p. 498, pi. 33, figs. 3-6, 1887. 



