MIOCENE PLANTS FROM SOUTHERN MEXICO. By Edward W. Berry, Of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. I am indebted to the Compaftia Transcontinental de Petroleo for the collections described in the present paper. They were made by Dr. Bruce Wade from several localities in the vicinity of Palomares in the State of Oaxaca and near San Jose del Carmen in the south-eastern part of the State of Vera Cruz, on the Isthmus of Tehuan-tepec. He informs me that fossil plants are present at several ad-ditional localities, as for example Ixhuatlan and Tecuanapa, and that detailed collecting would probably yield from 100 to 150 species. It is much to be hoped that additional collections may become avail-able as the country is opened up by the various oil companies. The fossil plants described in the present paper possess unusual value despite their limited variety from the fact that they are con-tained in a shallow water marine series carrying an abundant fauna, and thereby afford opportunities for comparisons between the marine fauna so common throughout tropical America and the scattered florules described by the writer from Panama,^ the Dominican Republic,^ Costa Rica,^ Venezuela/ and Haiti. ^ The types have been deposited in the United States National Museum. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a low saddle in the backbone of Central America, nowhere over a hundred meters above sea level and in marked contrast in this respect with the broken country lying to the immediate east and west. It is a region of many lagoons and flooded areas both along both coasts and in the interior. The climate is moist tropical with a mean temperature of about 70°. From September to February the winds are prevailingly northerly and hence cool, bringing rather continuous light rains. The so-called dry season extends over the months of March, April, and May, with » U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 103, pp. 15-44, pis. 12-18, 1918. > U. S. Nat. Mus. Proc., vol. 59, pp. 117-127, pi. 21, 1921. ' Idem, pp. 169-185, pis. 22-27. * Idem, pp. 553-579, pis. 107-109. » Idem, vol. 62, art. 14. No. 2465— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 62. Art. 19. 1
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