268 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY— TERTIARY FLORA. 



OELASTEE^. 



CELASTRUS, Linn. 



A large nuiiil^er of species of this genus, more thjwi sixty, are described 

 ill the present flora. Half of them are creflited to Africa, especially to the 

 Cape of Good Hope. India and China, with Japan, have fifteen species, and 

 North America one. A few inhabit Pern and South America. It is remark- 

 able that in Europe, where the genus is not represented by any .species at our 

 time, the Tertiary flora has such a large number of Celastrus, fifty-four species, 

 mostly distributed in the Lower Miocene (Armissan, Ligurian, etc). Besides 

 these, four species of Celastrinites, a genus established by Saporta, are described 

 from Sezanne, and three as Celastrophyllurm, from Bilin, by d'Ettingshausen. 

 Leaves referable to these divisions are, per contra, extremely rare in our 

 Tertiary. From the Cretaceous of the Dakota group, I have described, as 

 Celaslrophyllum ensifoUum (Cret. FL, p. 108, pi. xxi, figs. 2, 3), leaves which, 

 in the opinion of European authors, of Count Saporta especially, are referable 

 to the order of the Celastrece^ and related indeed to a Cdastrophyllutn recog- 

 nized in the Cretaceous of Niedershoena by d'Ettingshausen. And, until 

 now, from the American Tertiary Lignitic, we have only two kinds of leaves 

 apparently referable to this order, both described here as Celastrinites. This 

 case, with some others recorded already, shows the great difference in the 

 flora of the North American Tertiary compared with that of Europe. In the 

 groups of plants predominant in our present flora, the analogy of distribution 

 at the Tertiary epoch upon both continents is sometimes remarkable. In 

 those which are now exotic, especially the Austro-Indian, African, and 

 Australian types, the differences are wonderful indeed. 



Ceiastrinites artocarpidioides, Lesqx. 

 Plate XXXV, Fig. 3. 

 Arlocarjgid'mm, olmediasfoUum^, (Uug.) Lesqx., Annual Report, 1873, p. 40O. 



Leaf ovate-elliptical, apparently obtuse, cuneate to the petiole, borders irregularly distinctly cre- 

 nate ; secondary nerves inequidistant, open, ruoslly simple, curving at a distance from the borders. 



This leaf appears rather thin, has its surface crumpled, and the nerva- 

 tion somewhat indistinct. It is comparatively small, seven centimeters long 

 and four wide, and apparently obtusely pointed (point broken); the base 

 is cuneiform to a short petiole, also destroyed in part; the border cut in 

 irregular, obtuse or pointed teeth, and the nervation camptodrome, the sec- 



