DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director 

Professional Paper 108- E 

GEOLOGIC HISTORY INDICATED BY THE FOSSILIFEROUS 

DEPOSITS OF THE \YILCOX GROUP (EOCENE) 

AT lVIERIDLAN, lVIISSISSIPPI 

BY 

ED\VARD vVILBER BERRY 

Published June 22, 1917 

Shorter contributions to general geology, 1917 

(Pages 61-72) 

W AS}IING1~0N 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFIOE 

1917 
. . 

CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 

The locality . ..................................... ,_ ............................... •......... . ............. 61 

Geologic interpretation ......................................................................... : ... , . . . . 62 

Two new species of fossil plants ...................................................................... ,· . . . 63 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page. 

FLATES XXIV-XXVI. Nelumbo protolutea Berry, n. sp .......................................... : ........... 70-72 

FIGURE 17. Zamia mississippiens1:s Berry, n. sp............................................................ 63 

18. Sketch map showing the existing and geologic distribution of Nelumbo .. . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 

II 
GEOLOGIC HISTORY INDICATED BY THE FOSSILIFEROUS DEPOSITS OF 

THE WILCOX GROUP (EOCENE) AT MERIDIAN, MISSISSIPPI.· 

By EDWARD WILBER BERRY. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The presence of erosion intervals at several 

horizons in the Eocene of the Gulf States has 

been pointed out in a recent paper/ and the 

evidence of an erosion interval between the 

period of deposition of the sediments of the 

Wilcox group (lower Eocene) and that of the 

Claiborne group (middle Eocene) ·was reviewed 

in some detail in a general discussion. of the 

extensive flora of the Wilcox group of that 

region. 2 This evidence was not entirely conclusive ·and was based on the littoral character of 

the basal Claiborne, the occurrence of autochthonous beds of 'lignite at the base of the 

Claiborne at certain localities in the northern 

part of the Mississippi embayment, the great 

change between the Wilcox and Claiborne 

floras and faunas, and the reported unconformities in western Georgia 3 and in southwestern Texas.4 Recently E. N. Lowe, 5 State 

geologist of Mississippi, discovered a westward 

extension into that St·ate of the glauconitic 

shell marl of the Bas hi ("Woods Bluff") formation of southern Alabama. C. W. Cooke, of 

the United States Geological Survey, visited 

this region in the spring of 1916 and collected 

fossil plants at Meridian, Miss. This collection 

contained two new and important plants, and 

1 Berry, E. W ., Erosion intervals in the Eocene of the. Mississippi embayment: U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 95, pp. 73-82; 1916. 

2 Berry, E. W ., The lower Eocene floras of southeastern North America: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 91, pp. 3~38, 1916. 

a Veatch, Otto, and Stephenson, L. W., Preliminary report on the 

geology of the Coastal Plain of Georgia: Georgia Geol. Survey Bull. 26, 

p. 228, 1911. 

• Dumble, E . T., Some events in the Eocene history of the coastal area 

of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas and Mexico: Jour. Geology, vol. 23, pp. 

481-498, 1915. 

5 Lowe, E. N ., Mississippi, its geology, geography, soils, and mineral 

resources: Mississippi Geol. Survey Bull. 12, p. 71, 1915. 

76975°- 17 

it is the purpose of the present paper to discuss 

briefly these additions to the flora of the Wilcox 

group and the new evidence of the u:n,con·-

formity between the Wilcox and the Claiborne 

groups afforded by this outcrop .. 

THB LOCALITY. 

The outcrop from which the fossil plants were 

obtained is in the southeastern part of the town 

of Meridian, Miss., on a hillside immediately 

south of the Meridian & Memphis Railway, in 

an extensive excavation for the: fill leading to. 

the overhead crossing of the 1~o bile & Ohio 

Railroad, 200 yards east of that crossing. The 

section, for which I am indebted to Mr. Cooke, 

shows the following sequence: 

Section at Meridian, Miss. 

Fine yellow incoher-ent sand with .flat, disklike 

pebbles of clay and thin beds of clay, some of 

Feet. 

which show apparent ripple marks._.~. __ . __ .. 15-20± 

Probable unconformity. 

Gray to brown and black hackly clay, very sandy 

in places, with much lignitic matter; impressions of leaves abundant near the top"··.. . .... 30± 

Greenish-yellow fine incoherent glauconitic sand 

with large spheroidal indurated masses crowded 

with fossil shells ( Venericardia planicosta, Pseudoliva petrosa tuomeyi, Solariella louisiana, 

etc.), characteristic of the Bashi (" Woods 

Bluff") formation of the Wilcox group......... 12 

The fossil plants were col1ected from the end 

of the cut nearest to the railroad crossing, and 

the base of the section is a little higher than 

the flood plain of Souwashee Creek. The 

basal member contains an abundant marine . 

fauna, which Mr. Cooke states is characteristic 

of the Bashi formation of the Alabama section. 

The overlying member is packed with plant remains in its upper layers. The :following t able 

61 
62 SHORTER CONTRIBUT'IONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1917. 

enumerates those that are determinable and 

gives their known range: 

Sped,es of fossil plants occurring at Meridian, Miss. 

Previously known range. 

Lower Middle Upper 

Wilcox. Wilcox. Wilcox. 

-----~------------ ---~------ ----

Lygodium binervatum (Lesquereux) Berry __ ---------- X 

Zamia mississippiensis Berry, 

(?) 

n. SP-----.--- -------------- ____________ ____________ _ Sabalites grayanus Lesquereux X X 

Ficus puryearensis Berry- . _ _ _ X X X 

N elumbo protolutea Berry, n. 

SP-------------------------------.--------- -------- Gleditsiophyllum eocenicum 

Berry .... ______ . _ ---- - - - --- X 

Dalbergites elliptic i foli us Berry _____________________ _ 

Sapindus formosus Berry __ . _ _ X 

Sap indus mississippiensis Berry. ____________________ _ 

Mespiloda phne eol igni t ica 

Berry-.- .... _ - _ - _ -- - - - -- - -- X 

Mespilodaphne pseudoglauca Berry_____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ X 

N ectandra lowii Berry .. _ . _ - _ X 

Combretum obovalis Berry __ _ Aralia acerifolia Lesquereux __ 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

X 

This rather obvious correlation is not, however, the feature of especial interest in the 

Meridian section. The significance of that section lies in the facts that at the base the material 

is a glauconitic sand with an abundant faunaobviously a shallow-water marine depo~it-and 

that these marine sands pass imperceptibly upward into sandy lignitic clays which must be 

interpreted, in part at least, as true continental 

deposits, thus clearly presaging the withdrawal 

of the sea during the interval between the Wilcox and the Claiborne. 

The presence of land plants and scattered 

lignitic material (allocthonous) in the sediments 

argues for the nearness of a vegetation-covered 

shore. T?e legitimate evidence in the Meridian 

locality, however, justifies more than this inference, for the upper layers of the middle member 

are not only filled with 'the remains of land 

plants but contain in addition the rootstocks 

and abundant leaves of what appears to be the 

Eocene ancestor of the American Lotus. This 

species (Nelumbo protolutea) belongs to a genus 

whose known .living representatives are large 

perennial herbs growing exclusively in shallow 

and still fresh water, or nccasionally in water 

It will be seen that of the 14 species identified that is only very slightly brackish. Were the 

from Meridian, three occur in the lower Wilcox leaves the only traces of this plant present in 

or Ackerman formation, eight In the middle the deposits they might be interpreted as havWilcox or Holly Springs sand, and twelve, or all ing been drifted into an estuary, although their 

but the two new species, in the upper Wilcox or great abundance in all sizes and the fact that 

Grenada formation. In addition it should be the leaves are not deciduous but would have to 

noted that several recorded from , the middle be torn away from their stout petioles are opWilcox are found only near the top of that divi- posed to such an interpretation. But inassion, so that the present assemblage would be much as the clays c0ntain-rootstocks whic:h 

referred unhesitatingly to the upper Wilcox or during life creep in the mud at the bottoms of 

Grenada formation even were its stratigraphic ponds, and as a great abundance of rootlets 

position unknown. permeate the clays in every direction, many of 

GEOLOGIC INTERPRETATION. them .with the root hairs preserved, it is obvious 

that these remains were not transported but 

The· Bashi formation of the Alabama section 

Is overlain by the Hatchetigbee formation, 

which contains an obviously shallow-water 

marine fauna. It would seem indisputable 

that the lignitic sands overlying the glauconitic 

marl at Meridian correspond to the Hatchetigbee formation as it occurs to the southeast ·in 

Alabama and also to the Grenada formation as 

it occurs to the northwest. The Hatchetigbee 

fauna indicates the shallowest-water assemblage of Mollusca represented in the ·Alabama 

- section of the Wilcox group 

grew on the spot where they are now found~ 

They thus afford a record for this locality of 

a period of changing conditions during which 

greensands carrying a marine fauna became 

replaced by littoral sands and muds and these in 

turn were overlain by the sandy muds of what 

was probably a shallow pond containing a vigorous growth; of innumerable nelumbos or 

lotuses and receiving the leaves that fell from 

the trees along its shores. 

The section at Meridian, as interpreted by Mr. 

Cooke, ·appears to show an unconformity above 
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE WILCOX GROUP A'l' MERIDIAN, MISS. 63 

the plant bed, and the uppermost member-a 

fine yellow sand-contains disklike pebbles 

of waterworn clay, of a type usually associated 

~ith rather quiet wave action on beaches, and 

thin beds of clay that appear to have been 

ripple marked. These clay beds and pebbles 

may be local in c·haracter or they may n1ark the 

beginning of the Claiborne transgression. 

The conclusion seems justified that the 

upper Wilcox was a time during which the 

open sea became gradually smaller as the strand 

line moved southward, and that there was an 

interval of emergence between the deposition 

of the Wilcox and that of the Claiborne group, 

an interval whose considerable length is indicated by the great contrasts between the terrestrial fl'oras and the marine faunas of the 

Wilcox and the Claiborne. 

The locality at Meridian is the southernmost 

point in the Wilcox outcrop where fossil plants 

have been found, and if this locality, so far to 

the south, thus clearly indicates the succession 

of events between the last \Vilcox marine fauna 

and the transgressing sands of the lower 

Claiborne sea, it is obvious that a similar succession and a longer- erosion interval characterized that great area of the Mississippi embayment which lies to the north of Meridian. 

TWO NEW SPECIES OF FOSSIL PLANTS. 

The two new species described below are of 

especial interest in that the Nelumbo adds an 

entirely new type to the Wilcox flora, representing a family hitherto unknown in that 

.remarkable assemblage of b-etween 300 and 400 

species, and the second adds a new cycad 

(Zamia), represented by fronds, the only known 

cycad from the American Tertiary except a 

single piece of a pinnule of another species of 

Zamia from the Wilcox, previously described. 1 

Class GYMNOSPERMAE. 

Order CYCADALES. 

Family CYCADACEAE. 

Genus ZAMIA Linne. 

Zamia mississippiensis Berry, n. sp. 

Although Zamia-like foliage is very con1mon 

and widespread in :Mesozoic deposits the world 

over and more than 30 species of Zamia still 

exist in tropical and subtropical America~ including two that occur in the Floridian region, 

I Berry, E. W., U. S. GeG>l. Survey Prof. Paper 91, p. 169, pl. 114, 

fig. 2, 1916. 

only a few cycads have thus far been discovered in Tertiary depos.its anywhere~ Much 

interest therefore attaches to the present discovery of a small-leafed form of Zamia. . 

Leaves elongate, slender, and linear. Rachis 

stout. Pinnules small, crowded, opposite or 

subopposite, bluntly pointed, constricted proximad to a relatively broad inequilateral base, 

attached to the sides of the top of the rachis. 

Length 1.25 to 1.50 centimeters; 1naximum 

width about 2 n1illimeters. Margins entire. 

Texture coriaceous. Venation consisting of 

eight to ten longitudinally subparallel veins, 

a few of them dichotomous proximad. 

· This characteristic Zamia is represented in 

the present collections by three specimens, two 

of which are shown in the accompanying 

b c 

FIGURE 17.-Zamia mississippiensis Berry, n. sp. a, Specimen showing traces of 14 pair~ of pinnules; b, specimen with slightly larger 

pinnules; c, pinnule enlarged 4 diameters to show form and venation . 

figures. In the specimen represented in figure 

17, b, which shows a portion of the pinnulebearing part of a. rachis 4.4 centimeters long, 

the pinnules are slightly larger than in the other 

specimen figured and . are more scattered, but 

this is due to the loss of the intervening pinnules. In the other specimen '(fig. 17, a) a 

similar pinnule-bearing part of the rachis 4. 7 

centimeters long shows traces. of 14 pairs of 

pinnules. The rachis is somewhat. more 

slender than in the specimen shown in figure 

17, b, and the pinnules are slightly smaller. 

The unfigured specimen shows 5 centimeters of 

pinnule-bearing rachis with traces of 12 pairs 

of pinnules. 

The8e remains evidently represent a Zamia 

with slender, graceful leaves and much reduced pinnules, somewhat suggestive of the 
64 SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS . TO .GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1917. 

existing Zamia floridana De Candolle, which 

· inhabits the so~called flatwoods of the east 

coast of Florida south of New River. 

In my account of the lowerEocene flora of 

southeastern North America1 I described as 

Zamia? wilcoxensis a single broken pinnule of 

cycad which I compared with the existing 

Floridian Zamia pumilaLinne. It is interesting 

to find the remains of a second species smnewhat resembling the only other living Florida 

species at a horizon as old as the lower Eocene. 

The two species, though based on a rather 

meager amount of material, are apparently 

distinct, for Zamia? wilcoxensis has pinnules 

with more than twice as many veins as· the 

pinnules of Zamia mississippiensis. It is of 

course possible that the two occurrences 

represent the extremes of variation of a sing~e 

lower Eocene species, but I do not regard this 

as probable. 

Only five or six other Tertiary species of 

cycads are known, and most of these are based 

on poorly preserved or unrepresentative ~aterial. The only non-European form Is an 

undoubted species of Zamia from the Eocene 

of -Coronel, Chile, described by Engelhardt.2 

The oldest known Tertiary species is Zamites 

palaeocenicus, fro~ the Thanetian of Gelinden, 

Belgium, described by Saporta and Marion. 3 

Meschinelli 4 described a species from the 

Stampian of Venetia, Italy, whic~ he referred 

to Oeratozamites, and two species have been 

recorded from the lower Miocene (Aquitanian) 

of Europe-a Zamites from southern France 5 

and a well-marked Encephalartos from Kumi, 

in Greece. 6 Heer 7 recorded a species of 

Zamites from the Helvetian of Switzerland and 

a species of Oycadites from the Tortonian of 

that country, but both of these are rather 

doubtful determinations. 

The small amount of material on which the 

present species is based is nevertheless suffi1 Berry, E. W., U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 91, p. 169, pl.l14, 

fig. 2, 1916. 

2 Engelhardt, H., Ueber . Tertili.rpflanzen von Chile: .Senckenberg. 

naturf. Gesell. Abh., Band 16, p. 646, pl. 2, fig. 16, 1891. 

a Sa porta, Gaston de, and Marion, A. F., Revision de la floreheersienne 

de Gelinden, p. 20, pl. 1, figs. 4, 5, 1878. 

4 Meschinelli, L., Studiosulla flora fossile di Monte Piano: Soc. venet@-

trentina Sci. Nat. Atti, "\rol. 10, p. 276, pl. 6, Padua, 1889. 

o Saporta, Gaston de, Sur la decouverte d'une cycadee dans le terrain 

tertiaire moyen -de Provence: Soc. geol. France Bull., 2d ser., tome 21, 

pp. 314-328, pl. 5, 1864. 

6 Sa porta, Gaston de, Notice sur l' Encephalartos gorceixianus, cycadee 

fossile, du depot miocene de Koumi (Eubee): Soc. bot. et hort. Provence Bull., pp. 41- 44, 1 pl., 1880. 

7 Heer, Oswald, Flora tertiar\a Helvetiae, vol. 1, p. 46, pl. 15; pl. 16, 

fig. 1, 185.5. 

cient to establish the undoubted relationship 

of the fossil, as the accompanying text figures 

show, and it is quite possible that future 

research will reveal other members of this 

interesting family in the later Tertiary deposits 

of this region, as the plants thus far collected 

from the upper Eocene and lower Oligocene 

are more tropical in character than those from 

the lower Eocene. 

Class ANGIOSPERMAE. 

Order RANALES. 

Family NYMPHAEACEAE. 

Genus NELUMBO" Adanson. 

Nelumbo protolutea Berry, n. sp. 

Plates XXIV-XXVI. 

Leaves of all sizes, orbicular or suborbicular 

in outline, peltate. Petioles stout, that of one 

of the smaller leaves being 5 millimeters in 

diameter. Margins slightly undulate. Texture coriaceous. Primaries numerous, radia1;-

ing from the center of the leaf, about 25 in 

number (this is the number in the central fragment of the very large leaf figured in Pl. XXIV, 

fig. 2, as it is also in leaves not over half 

the size), stout, prominent on _the under side 

of the leaves. Although all the primaries 

are approximately equal in size they appear 

to be more cr0wded in one-half of the leaf than 

in the other, as in the large leaf figured (Pl. 

XXIV, fig. 2), where the ratio in the one-half 

to the other is 10 to 15. They pursue rather 

uniformly straight courses but fork dichotomously three or four times; the first dichotomy 

is somewhat more than half the distance to· 

the margin. The angles of the dichotomies 

are about 30°. In some specimens the primary 

remains straight and the second~ries are curved, 

a~ in the vertical primary shown · -in Plate 

XXIV, figure 2. The marginal dichotomy is 

tiny, and the ultimate parts of the forking of 

adjacent primaries are united by a broad loop 

or arch subparallel with the margin, as shown 

in Plate XXIV, figure I, and Plate XXV, 

figure 2. The tertiaries are thin and 'percurrent, or they inosc-qlate midway between adjacent primaries. Areolation very fine but 

well marked, forming isodiametric ,hexagonal 

meshes, well . shown ·enlarged twice in Plate 

XXVI, figure 3. 

The diameter of the larger leaf figured (Pl. 

XXIV, fig~ 2) is estimated as 32 centimeters; 

that of the leaf shown in Plate XXV, figure 2, . 
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE WILCOX GROUP AT' MERIDIAN, MISS. 65 

at 28 centimeters; that of the leaf shoWn in 

Plate XXV, figure 4, at 15 or 16 centimeters; 

and that of the small leaf shown in Plate XXV, 

figure 3, at 7 centimeters. The clays at this 

locality are packed with fragments of large 

leave~, so that the normal diameter seems to 

have been between 25 and 35 centimeters. 

The leaves were probably normally concave, 

as in the existing species, and several are preserved with the two halves of the upper surface in apposition. A fragment showing this 

method of preservation is shown in Plate XXV, 

figure 1. 

Associated with the leaves are fragments of 

the rootstock, most of them poorly preserved 

· but showing traces of nodes with leaf cushions 

and rontlet scars. In Plate XXVI, figure 2, 

) are shown the flattened rootlets radiating from 

a node, and figure 1 on the same plate shows 

the rootlets and root hairs. Traces of rootlets 

are very common in the clays and serve to indicate that this species grew at the exact locality 

where it was preserved, as might also· be inferred from its great abundance. Associated 

with these remains are a few rather poorly preserved oblate-spheroidal seeds, about 1.3 centimeters long and 0.8 centimeter in diameter, 

which I consider as representing the seeds of 

this species, although they are too poorly preserved for exact diagnosis. No traces of the 

characteristic large torus of this genus have yet 

been discovered at this locality. 

This new species is wholly unlike any American Tertiary species heretofore known and is 

larger and much better preserved. Among the 

considerable number of European ·Tertiary 

forn1s it resembles somewhat Nelumbo b·uchii, 

from Monte Promina, in Dalmatia, as figured 

by Ettingshausen,t and Nelumbo protospeciosum 

from the Aquitanian of southern France, described by Saporta.2 The latter is one of the 

most completely known fossil forms. It is 

represented by large and small leaves showing 

the details of areolation, by traces of flowers 

(stigmatic disks), and by seeds. Sa porta considers it in the direct line of descent to the 

existing sacred lotus of India ( Nelumbo nelumbo), which it certainly· resembles very 

much. This French species is more like the 

1 Ettingshausen, Constantin von, Die eocenel Flora des Monte Promina 

in Dalmatien: K. Akad. Wiss. Wien Denkschr., Band 8, p. 36, pl. 10, 

figs. 2, 3; pl. 11, fig. 1; pl. 12, 1855. 

2 Saporta, G. de, Recherches sur la vegetation du niveau aquitanien 

de Manosque, p. 17, pl. 1, figs. 2, 3; pl. 4, figs. 1, 2, 1891. 

Wilcox form than . any other previously described, and if the two occurred at the same 

horizon it would be impossible to distinguish 

them by their foliage alone. Nelumbo protospeciosum is probably descended from Nelumbo 

provinciale, from the Upper Cretaceous lignites 

of Fuveau, in Provence, referred by Saporta 

to the Campanian stage but now usually considered as forming a part of the Aturian stage. 

The existing species of N elumbo are two in 

number, both magnificent plants. One, the 

Indian lotus, Nelumbo nelumbo (Linne) Karsten, is found in the southeastern Asia~ic region 

from southern Japan to northern Australia and 

ranges westward as far as the Caspian . Sea. 

The other, the American lotus or· g:r:eat water 

lily, Nelumbo lutea (Willdenow) Persoon, is 

found in eastern North America from Ontario 

and Michigan to Florida and Louisiana and 

southward in the West Indies and northern 

South America, extending as far as latitude 

7° S. in Brazil. 

Any genus of plants represented by but two 

closely related existing species, each with a 

comparable habitat and distribution and separated by the breadth of the Pacific Ocean, is 

sure to have had a long geologic history during 

,which the aneestors of the existing species 

oceupied the intervening land areas. That 

Nelumbo had such a history has long been 

known, a1_1d a considerable number of fossil 

species have already been described. · The 

oldest are forms with small leaves for which I 

have proposed the generic term Nelumbites 3 and 

which are common in the Patapsco formation 

of the Potomac group in Maryland and Virginia (late Lower Cretaceous or Albian in age) 

and occur also in the earlier Upper Cretaceous 

of North America. Of about the same age or 

somewhat younger are Nelumbium lusitanicum 

and Nelumbium choffati, reported by Saporta 4 

from the supposed Albian oi Portugal, neither 

of which has been figured or adequately described. 

A species of especial interest_in the present 

connection is Nelumbo kempii Hollick, 5 which 

occurs in the Magothy formation of Long 

Island and New Jersey, for it appears to be 

a Berry, E. 'vV., Maryland Geol. Survey, Lower Cretaceous, p. 462,1911. 

'Saporta, G. de, Nouveaux details concernant les Nympheinees: 

Compt. Rend., vol. 119, pp; 835-837, 1894. 

5 Hollick, Arthur, The-Cretaceous flora of southern New York and New 

England: U.S. ·Geol. Survey Mon. 50, p. 6'1, pl. 13, figs. 1-4; pl. 14, figs. 

1, 2; pl. 15; pl. 16, figs. 1-6, 1906. 
66 SHORTER. CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1917. 

the logical ancestor of Nelumbo protolutea of Europe; N. nymphaeoides Ettingshausen,11 from · 

the Wilcox, thus paralleling Nelumbium pro- the Oligocene of Europe; and N. casparianum 

vinciale Saporta,t of the Aturian of southern Heer/2 N. ettingshauseni Sieber/3 and N. 

France, which seems to be the ancestor of hungarica Tuzson/4 from the Miocene of Europe. 

Nelumbo · protospeciosum Sa porta, in turn lead- One species, N. minima Clement and E. M. 

ing to the existing Indian lotus. Other Upper Reid/5 is recorded from the Pliocene of northern 

Cretaceous species are Nelumbium schwein- Europe, and the genus is also represented by 

furthi Couyat and Fritel,Z from the Aturian of rhizomes in the late Tertiary of Japan. 

Assouan, Egypt; Nelumbium arcticum Heer/ The remains referred to these several species 

from the Atane beds of western Greenland; comprise leaves, flower parts, rhizomes, rootNelumbo intermedia Knowlton, 4 from the Mon- lets, characteristic fruits, · and seeds, and they 

tana group of the West; ahd Nelumbo dawsoni clearly establish the once cosmopolitan range 

Hollick,S from the Belly River beds of Canada. of the genus, at least in the Northern 'Remis.:. 

The two latter are small-leafed forms, possibly phere, and its former abundance in Europe and 

referable to Nelumbites; residence there as late as the upper Plioce'ne. 

Besides several poorly characterized forms, The existing Nelumbo nelumbo, · therefore, 

the following 'more definite species may be appears to be a species whose extinction in 

mentioned from the Tertiary: Nelumbo lakesi- Europe was brought about by the unfavorable 

anum Lesquereux 6 and N. tenuifolium Les- conditions that existed during the Pleistocene 

quereux/ from the early Tertiary of Colorado; epoch but which survived in eastern and 

N. palaeocenicum Fritel,8 from the Sparnacian, :;outhern Asia, as did its only existing ally, 

or lower Eocene; of the Paris Basin; N. micro- Nelumbo lutea, in eastern North America, by 

carpum Ettingshausen/ from the Ypresian, or the opportunities afforded it to withdraw 

lower- Eocene, of England; N. buchii Ettings- southward beyond the reach of adverse con-: 

hausen/0 which is found at a number of ditions-opportunities which Europe, with its 

localities in the Oligocene and Miocene of high east-west mountain ranges and interior 

. . . l seas, failed to furnish. 1 Sa porta., Gaston de, Le Nelumbzum provmczale: Soc. geol. France Pal. I d t · }" . th f t t f th · th mem. 5, 1890. · n or er o VIsua 1ze e ac s se or 1n e 2 Couyat, J., and Fritel, P. H., Sur la presence d'empreintes vegrtales preceding discussion I have assembled them on 

dans le gres nubian des environs d'Assouan: Compt; Rend., vol. 151, th · k t h m (fi 18) whi h p. 963, 1910. e accompanying s e c ap g. . , c 3 Heer, Oswald, Flora fossilis arctica, vol. 6, Abt. 2, p. 92, pl. 40, fig. 6, shows the approximate range of the two 1882· existing species of Nelumbo by the obliquely 4 Knowlton, F. H., ·Flora of the Montana formation: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 163, p. 53, pl. 13, figs. 3-5, 19oo. lined areas and such Cretaceous and Tertiary 5 Hollick, Arthur, A new fossil Nelumbo from the Laramie group at records as OCCUr OUt&ide these areas by solid 

Florence, Colo.: Torrey Bot. Club Bull., vol. 21, p : 309, 1894. 

6 Lesquereux, Leo, The Tertiary flora: U. S. Geol. Survey Terr. Rept., black circles· 

vol. 7, p. 252; pl. 46, figs. 1, 2, 1878. · ----.,--------------------

7 Idem, p. 253, pl. 46, fig. 3. n Idem, p. 37, pl. 10, fig. 1; pl. 11, fig. 2. 

a J?ritel, P. H., Note sur trois nympheacees nouvelles du Sparnacien 12 Heer, Oswald, Flora tertiaria Helvetiae,· vol. 3, p. 299, 18.59. 

des environs de Paris: Soc. geoL ·:France Bull., 4th ser., vol. 8, p. 472, 13 Sieber, Johann, Zur Kenntniss der nordbohmischen Braunkohlenpl. 10, fig. 3

, 1908. flora: Akad. Wiss. Wien Sitzungsber., Band 82, p. 83, pl. 2; figs. 15, 16, 

9 Ettingshausen, Constantin von, Report on phyto-palaeontological ~2Tuzson,' Janos, A. Zsilvolgy egyuj Harmadkori novenye: Magyar 

investigations of the fossil flora of Sheppey: Roy. Soc. London Proc., tud. Akad. Math. Termeszettud., Ert. 29, pp. 827-829, 1911; Beitra.ge zur 

vol. 29, P· 395, 1879. fossilen Flor3 Ungarns: K. ung. geol. Reichsanstalt Jahrh., vol. 21, p. 10 Ettingshausen, Constantin von, Die eocene Flora des Monte Promina 257, pl. 17, fig. 3; pl. 19, figs. 2, 3; pl. 20; pl. 21, figs. 1, 2, 1914. 

in Dalmatien: K. Akad. Wiss. Wien Denk:schr., Band 8, p. 36, pl. 10, 15 Reid, Clement and E. M., The Pliocene floras of the Dutch-Prussian 

figs. 2, 3; pl. 11, fig. 1; pl. 12,.1855. border, p. 85, pl. 6, fig. 20 a, b, 1915. 
FIGURE 18.-Sketch map showing the existing and geologic distribution of Nelumbo. 

67 
PLATES XXIV -XXVI. 

69 
PLATE XXIV. 

FIGURES 1, 2. Nelumbo protolutea Berry, n. sp., from the Grenada formation at Meridian, Miss. 

1. Specimen showing margin and marginal venation of a small leaf. 

2. Specimen showing the central part of a large leaf. 

70 
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 108 PLATE XXIV 

2 

NELUMBO PROTOLUTEA BERR~ 
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 108 PLATE XXV 

NELUMBO PROTOLUTEA BERRY. 
PLATE XXV~ 

FIGURES 1-4. Nelumbo protolutea Berry, n. sp., from the Grenada formation at Meridian, Miss. 

1. Specimen showing part of the under and upper surfaces of a small funnel-shaped leaf. 

2. Specimen showing inargin and marginal venation of a large leaf. 

3. Specimen showing part of a very small leaf. 

4. Specimen showing the central part of a medium-sized leaf. 

71 
PLATE XXVI. 

FIGURES 1-3. Nelumbo protolutea Berry, n. sp., from the Grenada formation at Meridian, Miss. 

72 

1. Specimen showing rootlets and root hairs. 

2. Specimen showing rootlets radiating from the node of a crushed rootstock. 

3. Fragment of a large leaf, enlarged 2 diameters, to show the well-marked hexagonal areolatiou 

and other details of the venation. 

0 
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 108 PLATE XXVI 

3 

NELUMBO PROTOLUTEA BERR~