178 BERRY— LOWER EOCENE FLORA OF [April 25, 



are recorded from Maryland and the East Indies (Java) associ- 

 ated in the latter region with Pithecanthropus erectus Dubois. One 

 fact is certain, the genus has been a part of the American flora since 

 the dawn of the Upper Cretaceous, and several of the Wilcox species 

 are the undoubted prototypes of existing forms of the American 

 tropics. 



The genus Cercis, with a single Wilcox species, makes its first 

 recorded appearance in geological history in the Wilcox species, in 

 the three species recorded from the Ft. Union deposits of the Rocky 

 Mountain province and a fourth species found in the Ypresian of 

 the Paris basin, so that its appearance was practically contempora- 

 neous in France and Tennessee. It continues on both continents down 

 to the present being even represented in the Pleistocene of both. 

 The modern species number five or six and inhabit the warmer tem- 

 perate regions of America, Europe and Asia. 



There is one species of Cccsalpinia in the Wilcox and it is almost 

 identical in character and habitat with Ccusalpinia bahamcnsis La- 

 marck of tropical America. The existing species number about two 

 score of the tropics of both hemispheres. Cccsalpinia is recorded 

 first from the Upper Cretaceous of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and it 

 seems probable that it originated on this continent and reached 

 Europe during the Eocene by way of the Arctic region, since it is 

 common in the Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene of the latter 

 continent. 



Four Wilcox species are referred to the form-genus Ccusalpini- 

 tes. These represent true forms of Cccsalpinia or of allied genera 

 in this family, one almost certainly representing the genus Parkin- 

 sonia, a small genus which occurs in the European Oligocene but 

 which in the existing flora is confined to the warmer parts of North 

 America and South Africa. Fossil forms referred to Cccsalpini- 

 tes include about twenty of the European Oligocene and Miocene. 



The genus Gleditsiophyllnm makes its appearance in the Upper 

 Cretaceous of the Carolina region. It is represented by eight species 

 of leaves, leaflets and pods, often abundantly preserved, in the Wil- 

 cox deposits. Their relation to modern genera is uncertain, although 

 they were evidently much like Gleditsia. 



