220 BERRY— LOWER EOCENE FLORA OF [April 25, 



There are six well-marked types of Cinnainomiiui leaves described 

 from the Wilcox group, some of them being abundant and generally 

 distributed, and all but two appear to be new to science. In addition 

 buds and flowers that suggest this genus are described under the 

 form-genus Laurophylliini. 



There are two species of Persea in the Wilcox flora. Disregard- 

 ing the fossil forms referred to Laurus in a comprehensive sense 

 there are about fifty known fossil species of Persea which is about 

 the number of the existing species. All six of the Upper Cretaceous 

 forms are American where they are widely distributed. By Eocene 

 times they had reached Europe and South America and they are 

 cosmopolitan in the northern hemisphere throughout the Tertiary, 

 being especially abundant in the Pliocene of the Mediterranean 

 region. It would seem as if their Cretaceous origin was occidental, 

 that they spread over the northern hemisphere during the Tertiary 

 and became restricted to southeastern Asia, the Canary Islands and 

 America during the Pleistocene. 



The genus Ocotea of Aublet with over 200 existing species is, it 

 seems to me, composite, and I regard Nee's three genera Mespilo- 

 daphne, Oreodaphnc and Strychnodaphne as distinct. The modern 

 species of Mespilodaphne are confined to South x^frica and tropical 

 America. The fossil record is almost entirely merged in the forms 

 referred to Laurus. I have recognized four well-marked species in 

 the Wilcox flora. They are abundant types and some range from 

 the base to the top of the deposits, and along the Wilcox coast from 

 Mississippi around the head of the embayment and westward to 

 western Texas. 



The genus OreodapJine has been recognized in the American 

 Upper Cretaceous and throughout the European Tertiary. At the 

 present time its numerous species are confined to the American trop- 

 ics. In the Wilcox it has seven well-marked species, which are 

 abundant individually, some ranging from Mississippi to Texas and 

 from the base to the top of the Wilcox. The genus is probably 

 of American origin and it has been a member of the flora of the 

 American tropics from the Upper Cretaceous to the present. 



The genus Nectandra with about seventy existing species con- 

 fined to tropical and subtropical America probably has its geologic 



