148 BERRY— LOWER EOCENE FLORA OF [Ap"i 25. 



in species in the humid mountainous regions of Central America. It 

 is not a coastal form and is not found in association with the typical 

 Wilcox strand flora, occurring only in the basal Wilcox of Choctaw 

 County, Mississippi, and at the base of the transgressing Upper Wil- 

 cox deposits in Saline County, Arkansas. Its rarity and occurrence 

 in basal beds would seem to indicate that its area of growth was 

 inland and only reached in these two cases by the landward migration 

 of the strand line. The Sabalites, which I have compared with the 

 existing Sabal palmetto, is common everywhere from the base to the 

 top of the Wilcox. It is distinctly a coastal type, rather of the 

 lagoons, bayous and estuaries than of the strand. This is indicated 

 by the fragmentary nature of the remains at very many localities and 

 the occurrence of innumerable complete specimens at other localities 

 as for example at Oxford, Mississippi, where the presence of unios 

 and the local unconformities indicate estuary conditions. 



The Nipa palm found in the Upper Wilcox is clearly an inhabi- 

 tant of muddy tidal shores so that it would naturally be expected in 

 the laminated clays of the Upper Wilcox. Its single modern repre- 

 sentative is tolerant of water of considerable salinity and is a mem- 

 ber of the mangrove association of the Orient. It shows many points 

 of affinity with the Pandanacex and has never before been found 

 in the Western Hemisphere. Like so many forms which are strictly 

 oriental in the existing flora such as Cinnamomnm, Artocarpus, Phcc- 

 ni.v, etc., it enjoyed a cosmopolitan range during at least the earlier 

 half of the Tertiary period. 



A somewhat full account of Nipa has been recently published 

 by me^ and need not be repeated in the present connection. 



The single species of Canna of the Wilcox represents a strictly 

 hygrophilous type which is confined to America in the existing flora. 

 It is an inhabitant of estuary and river swamps near the coast, and 

 that the Wilcox species inhabited a similar situation is indicated by 

 its restricted occurrence and its association with Sabalites near the 

 mouth of a Wilcox river, w^iich on other grounds is known to have 

 been present in Lafayette County, Mississippi. 



The Dicotyledonse of the Wilcox as might be expected are largely 

 choripctalous forms since there are over 250 species of Choripetalse 



* Berry, E. W., Am. Jour. Sci. (IV.), Vol. 2,7, PP- 57-^0, Fig. i, 1914. 



