Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories Volume 6 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 Excerpt: ...species of our time. Habitat.--Decatur, Nebraska, Hayden. A single specimen. The locality of the leaf described by Dr. Newberry is marked Smoky Hills, Kansas. Ficus (?) Halliana, sp. nov., PI. xxviii, Figs. 3, 9. Leaves hard, subcoriaceous, very entire, petioled, oblong-lanceolate, pointed, more or less obtusely cuneate to the petiole; nervation pinnate; lateral veins close, straight, parallel, numerous. The leaves, broader below the middle or a little above the base, are more or less abruptly narrowed to the petiole, and gradually tapering to the point; the secondary veins, at an angle of divergence of 40, are straight, numerous, all equidistant and parallel, except the lowest pair, which is more oblique and parallel to the base; the reticulation is formed by intermediate or tertiary veins, which anastomose with nervilles at right angles to the secondary veins, forming loose, irregular, quadrate, or pentagonal meshes; medial nerve narrow; secondary veins thin. It is at first difficult to admit that both these leaves are referable to the same species. But in the fossil descriptions and representations of Tertiary pinnately-nerved species of Ficus, the secondary veins are often, even upon the same leaf, as in Ficus lanceolata, Heer, variable in distance, or close on one side and distant on the other. The same difference is recognizable in the Cretaceous leaves of Ficus geinitzii, Ett., (Flora v. Niedeeshoena, p. 16, PI. ii, Figs. 7,9-11, ) whose forms and nervation have great analogy with those of the Nebraska leaves. Fig. 11 has the secondary veins of the same type as those of our Fig. 3, while the broader leaf of Figs. 9 and 9b enlarged, has a more open nervation, with close veins, and an areolation of the same character as seen in our Fig. 9. There is, how..