ipM.] SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 203 



Switzerland and Baden. Felix has described a genus, Schmiddi- 

 opsis, based on fossil wood from the Oligocene of the Island of 

 Antigua, very close to the existing genus Schmidelia Linne which has 

 upwards of a hundred existing species in all tropical countries. 



The modern Cupanieas are represented in paleobotanical liter- 

 ature not only by Cupania but by species of Ciipanitcs and Cupan- 

 oidcs. The latter generic term was proposed by Bowerbank for 

 cupaniaceous fruits and seeds of which he described several charac- 

 teristic species from the Ypresian of the Island of Sheppey. Simi- 

 lar forms have also been recognized in the Miocene of Carniola and in 

 the Pliocene of Italy. The genus Cu/^aw/a Linne has about 35 exist- 

 ing species confined to the American tropics. Several Ypresian spe- 

 cies from the south of England have been referred to it by Ettings- 

 hausen and it has also been recorded from the Miocene of the Island 

 of Sachalin. The greater number of Cupania-Wkt forms have, how- 

 ever, been referred to the genus Ciipanites Schimper. Nine or ten 

 species have been described and with the exception of extremely 

 doubtful forms from the Upper Cretaceous of New Zealand and the 

 Eocene of Australia, the oldest authentic occurrences are the two 

 species of the Wilcox flora. There is a third species in the overlying 

 Claiborne group of the Mississippi embayment. The oldest Euro- 

 pean form is one from the late Oligocene of Styria. In the Miocene, 

 species are recorded from Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Croatia and 

 Hungary. 



The genus Dodoncua Linne often made the type of a distinct 

 family, the Dodonseaceas, has about fifty existing species of which 

 four fifths are Australian. Dodoncea viscosa Linne is cosmopolitan 

 in the tropics and there are one or two additional species in the 

 American tropics as well as one in the Hawaiian Islands and another 

 in Madagascar. The genus (including Dodonccites) was evidently 

 widespread in former times and upwards of a score of fossil species, 

 based on both leaves and fruits, have been described. The oldest 

 known forms are two species in the Ypresian of the north of Eng- 

 land and the two contemporaneous species in the Wilcox, which are 

 represented by both leaves and characteristic fruits. There are five 

 Oligocene species in France, Tyrol, Bohemia and Styria ; and ten 



