244 BERRY— LOWER EOCENE FLORA OF [April 25, 



The second genus represented in the Wilcox flora is Osnianthiis 

 Lour. It has about ten existing species of eastern North America, 

 eastern Asia and Polynesia. The Wilcox species is exceedingly 

 close to OsmantJms americaniis B and H of the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts from North Carolina southward. A second fossil species is 

 found in the Miocene of Florissant, Colorado. 



The old world genus Phillyrea Linne is found fossil in Europe; 

 the genus Notelcca Vent., which has six existing Australian species 

 and an isolated remnant of its former distribution in Madeira and the 

 Canary Islands, is represented in the Eocene, Oligocene and Pliocene 

 of Europe; the genus Olea Linne with over thirty existing species 

 about equally divided between Africa, Asia, and Australia and Poly- 

 nesia, has about twenty fossil forms (including Okophyllum Con- 

 wenz and Olecccarpum Menzel) in Europe where they range in age 

 from the basal Eocene through the Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene 

 to the Pleistocene. The genus is not known in American fossil 

 floras but there is a supposed species in the early Tertiary of 

 Australia. 



The genus Lignstrtim Linne with about 35 existing species in 

 southeastern Asia and the East Indies has three species in the Oli- 

 gocene and Miocene of Europe.^® wSaporta has described represent- 

 atives of the genus Syringa Linne from the Sannoisian of south- 

 eastern France, the occurrence of the latter genus being based on 

 floral remains. 



The family Apocynacese comprises 133 genera and between ten 

 and eleven hundred existing species of perennial herbs, vines, shrubs 

 and trees, mostly with a milky acrid juice and simple exstipulate 

 leaves. The fruit is usually a pair of follicles or drupes and the 

 seeds are often comatose. The family is almost equally divided into 

 two subfamilies, the Plumeroidese having 68 genera and about 550 

 species and the Echitoideae having 65 genera and about 500 species. 

 The genera Pliimeria Linne with about 40 species, and Rauzvolfia 

 Linne with about 45 species, are cosmopolitan, mostly tropical ; and 

 24 genera with about 300 species occur in more than one continental 

 area. America with 36 peculiar genera containing about 325 species 



^^ A species of Li^rfw^rnm recorded by Hollick from the Upper Cretaceous 

 of Long Island is probably a Pisonia. 



