No. 501] THE FLORISSANT EXPEDITION OF 1908 579 



shales. They are by no means so convincing as the 

 European fossils; but they appear to represent an ele- 

 ment now wanting in the North American flora, and no 

 one has been able to show that they are not Proteaceous. 

 I give figures of two of the most characteristic— Lomatia 

 acutiloba and Lomatia tripartita. Our new material of 

 L. tripartita is especially interesting as showing— what 

 Lesquereux did not know— that it has compound leaves. 



These leaves are exceedingly variable, and have very 

 much the cut of certain species of Pliacelia. 



This question of the Proteaceas is one of wide impor- 



botanical conclusions, but, according as it decided one 

 way or the other, it provides or removes an argument for 

 the former existence of great southern lands between the 

 present continents. 



