Fossil Flora from Pagan — Fosberg and Corwin 
9 
Abundant fragments of leaf impressions, as 
well as a few pieces of stem and leaf-sheath 
impressions. The leaves are thin and in addi- 
tion to a heavy midrib have two orders of 
lesser veins, with the most prominent of these 
at equal intervals, about 9 to 6 mm. In each 
interval are 3 to 4 very distinct smaller veins. 
These blades are mostly 1 to 2 cm. wide, but 
several are much wider than that, so that it is 
hard to match them with available herbarium 
material. However, there seems little doubt 
that they represent this species. The sheaths 
show a curved surface, no midrib, and slightly 
irregular veins, about 16 in 5 mm. A mold of 
such a sheath shows a slight amount of com- 
pression and somewhat of a keel, or angle, as 
is commonly observed on the back of sheaths 
in this species. The poorly preserved stem 
fragments are not especially distinctive. 
The leaves of this species are the most 
abundant fossils in the collection (Fig. 6). In 
some cases they are arranged so regularly as 
to suggest the pinnae of a palm or the plica- 
tions of a fan palm leaf. The venation, how- 
ever, is very characteristic and is easily 
matched in herbarium material. 
This is the most abundant living plant on 
Fig. 6. Miscanthus floridulus, part of mass of leaf 
blades, showing venation. 
Pagan, where it dominates large areas of 
grassland, especially on loose volcanic ash 
soils. It is a coarse harsh grass as much as 2 
to 3 m. tall. It is found from Japan and the 
Philippines to New Caledonia and east 
throughout Micronesia and Polynesia (ex- 
cept Hawaii) on volcanic islands. 
PALMAE 
Cocos nucifera L. 
PC-79-6 
This is the impression of a strongly plicate 
single bent section of a seedling leaf (Fig. 7). 
The size of the leaf and the amplitude and 
character of the plications match exactly a 
segment of a seedling coconut leaf preserved 
in the Bailey Hortorium of Cornell University. 
This leaf, if similarly bent, can be fitted into 
the plications of the fossil. Despite the scanti- 
ness of the material this species appears to be 
reliably identified. 
The coconut palm is now very abundant on 
the island, mostly planted. It is generally re- 
garded as being of human introduction on 
the oceanic islands of the Pacific, although 
Fig. 7. Cocos nucifera , portion of seedling leaf, show- 
ing plication. 
