Appian Way Research Articles

Cunninghamia beardii sp. nov. (Cupressaceae: Cunninghamioideae), Anatomically Preserved Pollen Cones from the Eocene of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Premise of research. A large pollen cone cluster attached to a cunninghamioid twig and surrounded by leaves has been identified from Eocene calcium carbonate marine concretions from the Appian Way locality on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The cluster preserves 18 cones but probably bore at least 24 pollen cones based on cone placement in the cluster.Methodology. Specimens were studied using the cellulose acetate peel technique, and reconstructions were made with ImageJ visualization software. Pollen was examined using SEM.Pivotal results. Cones are helically arranged around the tip of an ultimate leafy branch that terminates in scale leaves, each showing a central resin canal. Vegetative leaves on the twig are amphistomatic, showing typical cunninghamioid anatomy, with a large central resin canal abaxial to the vascular bundle, an elongate zone of transfusion tissue, a nonplicate mesophyll, and a hypodermis three to four cells thick. Each pollen cone is produced in the axil of a bract and has three scale leaves surrounding the base of the cone axis. Individual pollen cones have helically arranged microsporophylls, each with three elongate abaxial pollen sacs. While the cones are immature, pollen sacs with pollen are present in several cones. The exine is scabrate, with numerous orbicules, and no papilla is evident.Conclusions. This cluster provides the first detailed anatomically preserved fossil evidence for the pollen cones of Cunninghamia. It shows a large number of similarities to the pollen cone clusters of extant Cunninghamia lanceolata and Cunninghamia konishii and the Late Cretaceous Cunninghamia taylorii, strengthening hypotheses for a basal position of cunninghamioids within the Cupressaceae and further demonstrating that some characters of Cunninghamia have remained relatively unchanged since at least the mid-Cretaceous.

Lauraceous Flowers from the Eocene of Vancouver Island:Tinaflora beardiaegen. et sp. nov. (Lauraceae)

Premise of research. Twenty-one permineralized fossil flowers assignable to Lauraceae from the Eocene Appian Way locality on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, provide important anatomical and morphological data for interpreting evolutionary patterns in this diverse magnoliid family.Methodology. Consecutive anatomical sections were prepared using the cellulose acetate peel technique. Morphology and anatomy of the flowers were determined from anatomical sections, and three-dimensional reconstructions were rendered from serial sections using the software Amira.Pivotal results. Fossil flowers with oil bodies, trichomes, pollen, ovary anatomy, and other characters have allowed for the reconstruction of actinomorphic, pedicellate, and trimerous flowers with tepals in two whorls adnate to a shallow hypanthium. Nine fertile stamens occur in three whorls, the innermost of which bears paired glandular appendages, and a fourth whorl of sagittate staminodes surrounds the carpel. Anthers are tetrasporangiate. Stamens of the two outer whorls have median pollen sacs that are shorter than the two marginal pollen sacs. Third-whorl stamens have median pollen sacs that are longer than the marginal pollen sacs. Anthers of the first and second whorls are introrse, while the third-whorl anthers are extrorse. The fossil flowers have diagnostic characters of Lauraceae and are compared to flowers of extinct and extant taxa.Conclusions. The Eocene floral remains are assigned to Tinaflora beardiae gen. et sp. nov. We infer some aspects of floral biology based on different stages of development preserved among the fossils. The combination of well-preserved floral organs and in situ pollen is rare in the fossil record, allowing T. beardiae to expand the diversity of lauraceous floral morphology and provide further evidence for an Eocene radiation of the family in Laurasia.

A new squat lobster (Crustacea, Anomura, Munidopsidae) from the Middle-Late Eocene of British Columbia (Canada)

We report a new species of squat lobster from the Eocene Appian Way locality of Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada). The specimen is assigned to the fossil and extant Munidopsis Whiteaves, 1874, with M. canadensis n. sp. (Munidopsidae Ortmann, 1898). Munidopsis canadensis n. sp. represents the first report for the genus out of the Antarctica Peninsula and Europe, enlarging the palaeogeographic distribution for the genus.

Cascadiacarpa exilissp. nov.: new fruits of Fagaceae from the Eocene of British Columbia

More than 800 permineralized fagaceous fruits have been studied from the Eocene Appian Way locality of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. These cupulate nuts are the most common fruits preserved at the locality. They occur in calcareous concretions and were studied using the cellulose acetate peel technique. Cupules are borne on a spiny stalk and are broadly ovate in both longitudinal and transverse section. Cupules are evalvate and have both branching and simple spines. A single, ovoid, sclerotic nut is enclosed entirely by the cupule, except at the apex, where a stylar protrusion is free from any surrounding tissues. The nut is bilocular with a glabrous endocarp lining. At maturity, a single seed occupies the locular cavity. The embryo is straight and no endosperm is evident. The single-fruited, spiny cupule is most similar to fruits of Fagaceae subfamily Castaneoideae. Bicarpellate fruits and a glabrous endocarp place them within the fossil genus Cascadiacarpa; however, they differ from Cascadiacarpa spinosa in nut wall anatomy, cupule ornamentation, shape, and size. Fruits of Cascadiacarpa exilis sp. nov. are compared with spiny, small compression and impression fossil fruits from the Eocene Taneum Creek locality of Washington State. The characters of the Washington State fossils overlap with those observed in the anatomically preserved Appian Way cupulate fruits and, as such, may represent compression and impression fossils of the same genus. The permineralized fruits document that evalvate, spiny, cupulate nuts of Fagaceae were present and common in the Eocene of western North America.

The Sacred Almone River of the Appian Way Regional Park in Rome: ancient myths, a ritual link between Rome and Asia Minor and water uses in the modern age

Although the Almone River, which runs for 6 km between the Roman Via Latina and Via Appia, inside the present Appian Way Regional Park, is a short tributary of the Tiber River, it played a crucial role among the cults for protection of the ancient city of Rome: the rite of lavatio (a ritual washing) of the lithic symbol of the Great Mother-Cybele goddess from Pessinus (the present village of Ballihisar, southwest of Ankara, Turkey) in the cold and fast-flowing water of the Almone River. In later times, the Almone River lost its sacrality and its flowing water got a new useful and hydraulic meaning. So it deeply characterised the local area and human settlements, enhancing their artisanal potential, especially in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and in part until the 20th century. The river area has records of water mills and ‘valche’ (from the Longobard word walkan, rolling), i.e. wool-fulling mills. One of the latter (converted into a paper mill in the early 20th century) has been restored and is now used as the headquarters and visitors' centre of the Appian Way Regional Park, of which the Almone is one of the key attractions for its tourist, natural, historical and cultural value.

Nothing's Lost Forever

Nothing’s Lost Forever EDMUND RICHARDSON I saw something that only I could see, because of my astonishing ability to see such things: Souls were rising, from the earth far below, souls of the dead, of people who had perished, from famine, from war, from the plague, and they floated up, like skydivers in reverse, limbs all akimbo, wheeling and spinning. And the souls of these departed joined hands, clasped ankles, and formed a web, a great net of souls, and the souls were three-atom oxygen molecules, of the stuff of ozone, and the outer rim absorbed them, and was repaired. Nothing’s lost forever . In this world, there’s a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind, and dreaming ahead. At least I think that’s so. —Tony Kushner, Angels in America On March 27, 1888, as the light was fading, several reporters knocked—softly and suspiciously—at the door of 166 Madison Avenue, New York. They were welcomed by one of the city’s most distinguished lawyers, Luther Marsh, “looking almost precisely as all New York was used to seeing him at the bar—a short, well-built, kindly man, with a square, firm face, enclosed between white side whiskers.”1 Marsh ushered them upstairs into his study, where for decades the city’s elite had done business amongst the law-books. That night, the familiar room was unrecognizable . Dozens of strange new paintings were propped on the shelves, stood against the chairs and tables, and fixed to every spare inch of wall-space. The reporters gaped. Then Marsh began to tell them where the pictures had come from. All of the works they saw, he said, were painted not by mortal hands, but by the spirits of the great artists of the past—who had turned blank canvases into finished masterpieces in an instant, here in New York, this very year, before his very eyes: arion 20.2 fall 2012 The history of two medallion groups was thus given by Mr. Marsh: “Apelles, the Court painter to Alexander of Macedon, said in a communication : ‘I shall paint you medallions of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras and Archimedes.’ All five of them came out together. There they are. Then Polygnotus, a famous painter of the ancients, promised five others, and I had so much faith in that, that I had a double frame made. It is now, you see, filled, Polygnotus having given me Pelopidas, Epaminondas, Pericles, Homer and Cicero.”2 And there were many, many more: portraits by Raphael and Rembrandt, subjects from Pythagoras and Archimedes to Queen Elizabeth 1 and St. Paul.3 Marsh was all eagerness, “and spent several hours in pointing out the beauties of his unique collection.”4 One he was especially proud of: “a fine, large one, nearly as big as a window, which is a portrait of the man [Appius Claudius Caecus] who built the Appian Way out of Rome over two thousand years ago and who was . . . an ancestor of mine [Marsh’s], as I am informed by the spirit.”5 All the paintings had been brought into the world through the incredible powers of a certain Madame Diss Debar. “He [Marsh] buys mounted canvases and he holds them up above his head while Mme. Debar is present, and the painting[s] appear on them, all wet and sticky and smelling of paint.” The reporters looked and wondered, and noted the badness of the brushwork. “The ordinary man with a knowledge of art,” one murmured, “might wish that the spirits would paint in a less degree like the works that are sold on Vesey street, frame and all, for $1.75.”6 But there was more: some spirits, including Aristotle and Socrates, had even written messages to Marsh. To receive them, “he presses the edges of a pad that he has just bought and knows to be fresh, and the always-present Mme. Debar also presses it. Suddenly the sound of writing is heard followed by two or three soft, low raps. The pad is then opened and found to contain twenty or thirty or even sixty pages of writing from . . . some ancient Greek or Roman...

A new family of leafy liverworts from the middle Eocene of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Morphology is a reflection of evolution, and as the majority of biodiversity that has lived on Earth is now extinct, the study of the fossil record provides a more complete picture of evolution. This study investigates anatomically preserved bryophyte fossils from the Eocene Oyster Bay Formation of Vancouver Island. While the bryophyte fossil record is limited in general, anatomically preserved bryophytes are even more infrequent; thus, the Oyster Bay bryophytes are a particularly significant addition to the bryophyte fossil record. Fossils occur in two marine carbonate nodules collected from the Appian Way locality on the eastern shore of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and were prepared using the cellulose acetate peel technique. The fossils exhibit a novel combination of characters unknown among extinct and extant liverworts: (1) three-ranked helical phyllotaxis with underleaves larger than the lateral leaves; (2) fascicled rhizoids associated with the leaves of all three ranks; (3) Anomoclada-type endogenous branching. A new liverwort family, Appianacae fam. nov., is established based upon the novel combination of characters. Appiana gen. nov. broadens the known diversity of bryophytes and adds a hepatic component to one of the richest and best characterized Eocene floras.

The Tres Tabernae archeological site (Cisterna di Latina, Italy): new evidence revealed through an integrated geophysical investigation

«Mercator» (Medocc, INTERREG IIIB) is a European project that is aimed at a detailed investigation of the historical and archeological heritage of the Mediterranean area. Within this project, broad research is being financed regarding the importance of the development of the main ancient merchant routes in this region. These various tasks include this integrated geophysical survey at the Tres Tabernae site, an ancient statio along the Appian way (close to Latina, central Italy). This was carried out using several techniques that are focused on the identification of buried archeological remains. The main goal of this investigation was to cover the area surrounding this partially excavated site to obtain a quick, but meaningful, result relating to the presence of interesting buried features. For this, the geophysical techniques involved were frequency-domain electromagnetic induction, groundpenetrating radar, and magnetometry. To obtain the best results, these methods were optimized, taking into account the kind of structures involved and their relation to the environmental context. The combination of these different geophysical techniques shows good results, indicating the possible presence of new buried structures, such as walls, floors and a lead pipe.

CARPINUS BETULUS CV FASTIGIATA—THEIR GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN SUBURBAN DUBLIN

The growth rate of Carpinus betulus cv Fastigiata planted in the early and mid 1980s the inner suburbs of Dublin (Ireland) was examined. The trees were growing in the following conditions, in a grassed level area in a public park, planting pits surrounded by tarmacadam in an adjacent street, in a grassed median strip between a footpath and road and in a planting pit bordered by concrete and a concrete kerb. Records of tree height, girth and crown spread of 241 trees were taken. The mean height of trees planted in 1985 in Herbert Park, urban park was 12.92m, while the mean value of street trees in the same scheme outside the Park was 12.46m. The corresponding results for girth were 0.92m and 0.88m and for crown spread were 6.47 and 5.87. The mean height of trees planted in the early 1980s on Ailesbury Road was 14.53m while on Appian Way it was 13.55m, with the respective girth values being 1.04m and 1.02m and the mean crown spread 8.18m and 5.63m. The replanting rate varied from 5.5% to 21% which is considerably less than a general estimate of 25%-50% for the United Kingdom and 30% in Helsinki (Finland). In no location have the trees attained a height of 18m which is given as the average height of this cultivar in urban areas, however in one location the crown spread is greater than the 8 metres given for the cultivar.

Water and wastewater management technologies through the centuries

The aim of this paper is to propose a journey through the history of water and wastewater management technologies in the ancient civilizations, a sort of Appian Way (“Via Appia”, the “regina longarum viarum”) through the Centuries. Moreover, this paper is a sort of short summary of papers presented in the first two IWA Specialty Conferences on Water and Wastewater Technologies in Ancient Civilizations with particular emphasis on the later one. The main topics considered are: aqueducts and tunnels, cisterns and reservoirs, water distributions systems, fountains, toilets and other purgatory structures, drainage and sewerage systems, irrigation systems and, finally, qanats and other similar systems. Upon completing the journey, we have arrived at the conclusion that the meaning of sustainability in modern times should be revaluated in light of ancient hydraulic water and wastewater works and management practices.

Permineralized Fagus Nuts from the Eocene of Vancouver Island, Canada

Sixty trigonal fagaceous fruits have been identified in the calcareous nodules from the Eocene Appian Way locality of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The anatomically preserved fruits are known at various developmental stages. In transverse section, fruits are triangular, with lateral ridges that vary in shape from rounded to sharply angled. In longitudinal section, the nuts show a broad base and a tapered apex. The ovary is partitioned into three locules at the apex, and placentation is axile, with two ovules per locule. Locules merge near the base, giving the appearance of a three‐lobed ovarian cavity. This area is occupied by a single seed at maturity. The inner wall of the endocarp is tomentose. Major vascular bundles in the mesocarp occur midway between and at the lateral ridges of the nut. The nut is wingless and has an exocarp of dense sclerenchyma interrupted at the ridges by dehiscence lines that traverse the entire fruit wall. The nut surface is glabrous, except near the distal end, where trichomes emerge in proximity to three styles and surrounding perianth remnants. These nuts are assigned to the genus Fagus L. and represent the first permineralized Fagaceae of subfamily Fagoideae in the fossil record. Fagus schofieldii sp. nov. provides the earliest evidence of winglessness in Fagoideae and supports the possibility of a North American origin for the genus.

Stable isotope data from the early Christian catacombs of ancient Rome: new insights into the dietary habits of Rome's early Christians

This study reports on the first attempt that determines the diet of a small but conceivably representative section of Rome's early Christian community by means of δ 13C and δ 15N measurements on collagen extracted from twenty-two samples of human bone. Samples derive from the Liberian Region in the catacombs of St. Callixtus on the Appian Way—an area that has been radiocarbon dated to the period from the mid-3rd through early 5th century AD. Comparing our results to those produced for several other sites, we argue that this population's typical diet included freshwater fish. We also briefly discuss breastfeeding and the freshwater reservoir effect, to then explore the dietary, art historical, and possible sociological ramifications of our results.

Fruits of Icacinaceae from the Eocene Appian Way Locality of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Twenty‐six permineralized icacinaceous fruits have been identified in the calcareous nodules from the Eocene Appian Way locality on Vancouver Island. Specimens of three fruit types were studied using the cellulose acetate peel technique and three‐dimensional computer‐animated reconstructions. Fruits are drupes with thin exocarp and mesocarp and a distinctly pitted endocarp with “tubercles.” Endocarps are unilocular and bilaterally symmetrical, with straight‐walled (cylindrical) to conical protrusions into the locule cavity. The outer layer of the endocarp in all fruits is composed of thick‐walled interlocking digitate sclereids. The largest fruits are at least \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wnc...

Emerging Themes, Emerging Voices

As American Art celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, we can sense a shift in the questions scholars are bringing to the nation’s visual history. Th is issue of the journal is dedicated to identifying some of the intriguing directions newer art historians are starting to explore—from inquiries into science and sensation to a “serious” attention to humor. To preface the rich research articles that follow, I off er some observations and suggestions from my catbird seat as editor of American Art and academic advisor for the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s fellowship program. In my daily work, I have had the privilege to converse with scholars from many universities about dissertations and books not yet written, to read fellowship and grant proposals as well as journal manuscript submissions, and to follow presentations at a variety of professional conferences. From these and other interactions, I highlight here a number of scholarly voices. To begin, let me cite some more reasons to celebrate: studies of American art and artists, once considered “inferior” to research on Greek and Roman sculpture and works by Rembrandt, Monet, and Picasso, are fl ourishing. Th e founders of the fi eld chose to research U.S. painting at the peril of their academic careers. And Charles C. Eldredge, former director of our museum, likes to recall that there were doubters when he launched this journal in 1987—colleagues who predicted it could not endure. He commented then that American art history had only come of age with the nation’s bicentennial, noting: “It took a new generation of historians to embrace art that owed as much to the Oregon Trail as to the Appian Way.”1 Subsequent decades have proven their bold gamble successful. Th e journal heads into its third decade amid a wealth of programs and resources related to American art history that could not have been foreseen at the time of its birth. Th e fi eld has more professors, students, fellowships, prizes, publication opportunities, and funds for exhibitions than ever before as well as a growing professional organization, AHAA (the Association of Historians of American Art).2 Just in the last year, the attention paid to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2006 reopening, with its new Luce open-storage study center and Lunder conservation labs, and to the National Portrait Gallery’s reinvention of itself as a more lively venue for contemporary art has been remarkable. Commentaries

Margaretbarromyces dictyosporus gen. sp. nov.: a permineralized corticolous ascomycete from the Eocene of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

A single, permineralized ascoma resembling a pseudothecium assignable to the Pleosporales is described from the Eocene Appian Way fossil locality on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The ascoma is globose, ostiolate, and erumpent on a fragment of the bark from an unidentified seed plant. Basally arranged asci contain large, multicelled, obovate ascospores within a single cavity or locule enclosed by a two-layered pseudoparenchymatous tissue that ostensibly represents ascostroma. Given this interpretation of the specimen's morphological features, Margaretbarromyces dictyosporus gen. sp. nov. represents the first report of a corticolous pleosporalean ascoma in the fossil record.

Why Mind, Brain, and Education? Why Now?

Mind, Brain, and EducationVolume 1, Issue 1 p. 1-2 Why Mind, Brain, and Education? Why Now? Kurt W. Fischer, Corresponding Author Kurt W. Fischer Harvard University Graduate School of EducationKurt W. Fischer, Larsen Hall 702, Appian Way, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138; e-mail: [email protected].Search for more papers by this authorDavid B. Daniel, David B. Daniel University of Northern ColoradoSearch for more papers by this authorMary Helen Immordino-Yang, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang Rossier School of Education, University of Southern CaliforniaSearch for more papers by this authorElsbeth Stern, Elsbeth Stern Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ZurichSearch for more papers by this authorAntonio Battro, Antonio Battro National Academy of Education ArgentinaSearch for more papers by this authorHideaki Koizumi, Hideaki Koizumi (Editors) Hitachi Ltd.Search for more papers by this author Kurt W. Fischer, Corresponding Author Kurt W. Fischer Harvard University Graduate School of EducationKurt W. Fischer, Larsen Hall 702, Appian Way, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138; e-mail: [email protected].Search for more papers by this authorDavid B. Daniel, David B. Daniel University of Northern ColoradoSearch for more papers by this authorMary Helen Immordino-Yang, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang Rossier School of Education, University of Southern CaliforniaSearch for more papers by this authorElsbeth Stern, Elsbeth Stern Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ZurichSearch for more papers by this authorAntonio Battro, Antonio Battro National Academy of Education ArgentinaSearch for more papers by this authorHideaki Koizumi, Hideaki Koizumi (Editors) Hitachi Ltd.Search for more papers by this author First published: 12 March 2007 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228X.2007.00006.xCitations: 84Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume1, Issue1March 2007Pages 1-2 RelatedInformation

Cascadiacarpa spinosa gen. et sp. nov. (Fagaceae): castaneoid fruits from the Eocene of Vancouver Island, Canada

Documenting the paleodiversity of well-studied angiosperm families serves to broaden their circumscription while also providing a time-specific reference point to mark the first occurrence of characters and appearance of lineages. More than 80 anatomically preserved specimens of spiny, cupulate fruits in various developmental stages have been studied from the Eocene Appian Way locality of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Details of internal anatomy and external morphology are known for the cupules, fruits, and pedicels. Cupule spines branch and are often borne in clusters. Cupules lack clear sutures and are adnate to a single nut that is enclosed entirely with the exception of the apical stylar protrusion of the pistil. A central hollow cylinder of vascular tissue can be seen extending up the peduncle to the base of the fruit and along the inner wall of the cupule. The fruit has a sclerotic outer pericarp that grades into a parenchymatous mesocarp and a sclerotic endocarp lining the locules. Early in development, the two locules are divided by a thin septum to which the ovules are attached. Only one seed develops to maturity as evidenced by an embryo occupying the locule alongside an abortive apical ovule. Three-dimensional reconstructions of these fruits have allowed for comparisons to both extinct and extant fagaceous taxa. The Appian Way fruits are most similar to extant Castanopsis species (Fagaceae) but differ in having only two locules. Cascadiacarpa spinosa gen. et sp. nov. Mindell, Stockey et Beard is the first occurence of a bipartite gynoecium and earliest known occurrence of hypogeous fruits in Fagaceae. The appearance of Casacadiacarpa in the Eocene of British Columbia supports a Paleogene radiation of the family. The numerous derived characters of these fruits show that evalvate, spiny, single-fruited cupules of Fagaceae were present in the Paleogene of North America.

Further Radiocarbon Dates from the Catacombs of St. Callixtus in Rome

This paper reports a further chronological assessment of the Christian catacombs of Rome by radiocarbon-dated organic materials in the so-called Liberian region of the catacombs of St. Callixtus on the Appian Way. 14C dates of various types of organic material are discussed and related to ages derived from numismatic evidence and epigraphic remains. The results show that this area of the catacombs of St. Callixtus is older than assumed by previous scholarship. We therefore conclude that the appellation “Liberian region” is a misnomer.

Gleichenia appianensis sp. nov. (Gleicheniaceae): A Permineralized Rhizome and Associated Vegetative Remains from the Eocene of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

A permineralized gleicheniaceous rhizome with an attached stipe base has been identified from the Appian Way locality on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The specimens are preserved in Middle Eocene marine calcareous concretions that are studied using the cellulose acetate peel technique. The marginally mesarch rhizome has a vitalized protostele, protoxylem elements with helical wall thickenings, and scalariform metaxylem tracheids that occur in clusters. A continuous band of phloem and pericycle surrounds the xylem. The inner cortex consists of a layer of small‐diameter sclerenchyma fibers, and the outer cortex is composed of larger parenchyma cells. A nodal island of sclerenchyma is present between the leaf trace and protostele at the level of frond‐trace divergence. Long metaxylem tracheids in the frond trace show septa in longitudinal section that likely represent tyloses. Roots diverge from all sides of the rhizome with traces that run obliquely through the cortex. Numerous associated but isolated frond segments are found in the Appian Way nodules that show a pinched and inrolled C‐shaped vascular trace and pseudodichotomous bifurcation. The frond traces have numerous protoxylem strands, and the general anatomy is comparable to that of gleicheniaceous stipes. The rhizome is described as a new species of Gleichenia, Gleichenia appianensis Mindell, Stockey, Rothwell, et Beard sp. nov., and represents the first record of Gleicheniaceae in the Tertiary of North America.

Anatomically Preserved Staminate Inflorescences ofGynoplatananthus oysterbayensisgen. et sp. nov. (Platanaceae) and Associated Pistillate Fructifications from the Eocene of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Anatomically preserved specimens of globose staminate and pistillate inflorescences belonging to Platanaceae have been found in concretions at the Eocene Appian Way fossil locality on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The structure of inflorescences and individual flowers, vascular architecture, and pollen morphology were examined. Flowers occur on globose unisexual heads and are supplied at their bases by branching pentagonal vascular traces. Flowers of staminate inflorescences have a well‐developed perianth with at least two whorls of tepals. Five stamens with elongate anthers surround a single whorl of five (rarely four) free, nonfunctional carpels that are ovate in longitudinal section and roughly triangular in transverse section. In situ tricolpate pollen 16 μm in polar diameter is found in the anthers. This same pollen is found among the persistent styles of larger pistillate fructifications. The pistillate flowers are identical in structure to staminate flowers but have five fully developed carpels, and they lack stamens. Fruits are glabrous achenes up to 8 mm long. Staminate inflorescences compare most closely to those of Platananthus sp., but the regular co‐occurrence of both stamens and rudimentary carpels in the same flower has not previously been reported in the fossil record, and, thus, these specimens have been placed in a new genus and species, Gynoplatananthus oysterbayensis. These platanaceous inflorescences add to our knowledge of the Appian Way flora and provide evidence that rudimentary carpels are an ancient feature within staminate flowers of Platanaceae.