48 FOSSIL FLORA OF THE SIERRA NEVADA. 



yet from more recent formations. The fossil Ericaceae are few and scarcely 

 defined by their leaves. Andromeda Grayana is recognized by Ileer in 

 the Miocene of Burrard Inlet and in that of Alaska. I have it from 

 Spring Canon, and, as far as it may be identified from the incomplete 

 specimens, it is in the Dakota group already. The Aquifoliaccw have species 

 of Ilex from the Upper Miocene of Florissant : one belongs to the section 

 Aquifolium ; the others, with the one described here from the Pliocene, to 

 that of the Priiwides. In the Ebenacew we find in the Cretaceous one spe- 

 cies of Diospiji-os. The genus then is represented by two others from 

 Black Butte, one from British Columbia, and one from Evanston. These 

 are related to some of the species of the European Miocene. Another of a 

 different character is described from Florissant. The Lauracece are already 

 in the Dakota Cretaceous by leaves and fruit, and continue in all our geo- 

 logical formations in leaves indifferently referable to Laurus and Persia. 

 It is the same with Ginnamonium, a genus mostly Miocene in Europe, where 

 it has a number of specific forms. One American species, G. affine, 

 closely related to the beautiful C. Mississippiense, of the Southern Tertiary 

 Lignitic, is in the Eocene of Colorado and in the Miocene of Carbon. A 

 Tetranthera with leaves and branches bearing fruits, found at Evanston, 

 is seemingly identical with T. laurifolia of Cuba. With this there is in 

 the Cretaceous a prodigious quantity of leaves apparently referable to 

 Sassafras, a genus known also from the Miocene of Greenland. If, there- 

 fore, no remains of Sassafras have been found until now in the sub- 

 sequent geological formations of North America, this is probably to be 

 accounted for by our limited acquaintance with our fossil flora, especially 

 with that of the Lower Miocene. Of the Oleacem, species of Fraxinus arc in 

 the Eocene and in both stages of the Miocene. Hitherto I have passed in 

 review the botanical divisions where the arborescent forms are not the 

 predominant ones, and where therefore the series of the fossil representa- 

 tives are forcibly interrupted. But, coining to the Urticinece, the Amentaceoe, 

 and the Conifer*, we find in the old formations such an array of species 

 analogous to those of the present Moras of Eastern North America, that these 

 only would suffice to force the reference of the arborescent types of our vege- 

 tation to those of the "•eoloincal times. Ulmus and Planera, of eompara- 

 tively recent origin, abound in the Upper Miocene of the Territories, 

 the first represented by forms so very similar to those of the Pliocene 

 of California and of the Atlantic flora that the specific differences are 



